


Broken Destiny

by Zygarde22



Series: Acceptance: Main and Side Stories [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff and Angst, I just want them to be happy, Multi, Post Battle of Beacon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pyrrah survived AU, Teen Pregnancy, Teen Romance, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-03-03 17:11:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 26,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13345746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zygarde22/pseuds/Zygarde22
Summary: Pyrrah was supposed to die that fateful night atop Beacon tower, but she didn't now given a new lease on life and a new calling to help her friends, she will journey with the rest of her team and the ever energetic Ruby Rose to Mistral with the hopes of staving off the oncoming tides of Darkness that soon threaten to overtake Remnant.





	1. The Ties That Bind Our Fates

**Author's Note:**

> This AU Idea was a few weeks of making, and lots and lots of planning. And will probably take forever to get right since I have to look at each episode of Volume 4 and see where I need to change things and keep others. Still I hope people like this I had a lot of fun making it.

          They say destiny and fate are never as clear cut as one would always think. Some say that we are bound to an inevitable fate that no mortal can break or bend, while others say that if one fights hard enough, then the bonds of destiny can be broken and shattered like any shackle or cage. Pyrrha always thought that some destiny was bound to her, unknown to her. When she ascended Beacon Tower to confront Cinder, she knew she probably would not come out of it alive. This was her destiny, to face her death to protect her fellow students and the ones she loved the most. 

            The battle against Cinder was hard fought, but in the end, while Pyrrha was a good warrior, she was no match for Cinder. Here she was, before Cinder in what were to be her final moments, in a way she was content. It was an interesting experience to look one’s death in the eye, to know that you would soon depart the mortal coil. It was liberating.

            “It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours.” Cinder says holding Pyrrha’s face, “But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined.” Cinder said as she lined up her bow ready to deliver the final blow to Pyrrha, but the final blow never came, in fact she couldn’t hear much of anything, not the chaotic cacophony of sound of the battle that raged below, not Cinder, the only thing she could hear was the steady, slow beat of her heart. Was she dead? This didn’t feel like death, but then again how would she know, if this was what being dead felt like, then it sucked. She then felt herself let out a gasp of air as her eyes shot open.

            Looking around she could see she was…somewhere, she didn’t recognize the place at all. Sitting up to get a better look at her surroundings, she was in a tent, judging by the walls or flaps of the tent as she could see she was in a medical tent.

         “Where…where am I?” Pyrrha said trying to ascertain where she was, well she deduced that she was in a hospital tent, how was really the question. Retracing her thoughts to before she was well here, all she could remember was going up the tower, confronting Cinder and then…everything went dark, and here she was.

“P-Pyrrha!” She heard a voice say from the other side of the tent, turning around she saw standing in the tents entryway, the one who she had left behind to fight Cinder, Jaune Arc, “You’re awake!” Jaune said as he rushed to Pyrrha’s side and hugged her tightly. A little dazed at the act, Pyrrha soon accepted the hug and wrapped her arms as best she could around Jaune.

“They said you wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.”  Jaune said letting go of Pyrrha looking at her with tears, streaking across his face, “B-but your awake! And that’s all that matters.” Jaune said wiping the tears from his face, Pyrrha smiled and placed her face in the crook of Jaune’s neck, letting his warmth resonate through her. She knew she would have to ask how she survived her confrontation with Cinder, but for the time being she was content to just be with Jaune and put those thoughts in the back of her mind for the time being. Still something else was sticking out in her mind, the status of her other teammates Ren and Nora

 “Where are Nora and Ren?” Pyrrha asked hoping that her other friends were still okay and that nothing happened to them. The face that Jaune was making gave her some hope that nothing had happened to the two.

            “They are fine, they’re actually outside the tent right now, I can get them if you want?” Jaune said head tilted waiting for Pyrrha to answer, nodding Jaune left the tent and a few seconds later returned with the rest of Team JNPR.

            “Hey Pyrrha, good to see you’re y’know, awake.” Nora said in her normally bubbly way, bouncing up and down on her heels giddy at her friend no longer being in a coma. Ren simply nodded agreeing with Nora. Pyrrha smiled, but sighed a bit she knew she was going to have to ask eventually.

            “So, what happened?” Pyrrha asked trying to figure out what happened after she blacked out. Jaune looked at Ren, and Nora who both had worried looks on their face, not a good sign she thought.

            “Well, most everyone we know is fine, Yang is…kinda bad off.” Jaune said, Pyrrha would ask for details, but decided against it, “Blake has gone off, and Weiss got whisked away by her dad, and Ruby was in the same condition you were in, though she’s in Patch now.” Jaune said, that cleared up what happened to team RWBY, but what happened to Cinder, to the rest of Beacon.

            “Well what happened to everything else?” Pyrrha asked wanting to get some idea of what happened, and so Jaune, Nora and Ren began the long explanation of what happened to her, Cinder had struck her in the chest and would have killed her, if it weren’t for the fact that Ruby had seen that, and awakened some kind of strange power from her eyes, that’s how they were both knocked out.

            “I’m…so many things gone wrong because of me.” Pyrrha said thinking of how she failed to become the Fall Maiden and all the other problems that have happened because of her, but before she could continue to wallow in her self-doubt, Jaune, Nora and Ren pulled her into a group hug.

            “You can’t put yourself down like that Pyrrha.” Jaune said still holding Pyrrha tightly, not wanting to let her go, as if his life depended on it. Pyrrha sighed she knew Jaune was right, but didn’t want to admit it.

“I know Jaune, I know.” Pyrrha said as she looked at her friends, and smiled at them. She knew they’d be with her to help her through this. It would take a while for her to be clear to leave the hospital tent, hopefully by then she could accompany them to Patch to see Ruby when she awoke.

            “So, any news on Ruby?” Pyrrha asked Jaune as he sat by her bed, He shook his head and looked a bit downcast, “Don’t worry, even if the CCT is down, we’ll probably get some form of news about her.” Pyrrha said, comforting Jaune. She knew how much Ruby meant to him, being his first friend at Beacon.

“Well, how about some good news, I’m going to be able to leave tomorrow, so we can head to Patch whenever you’re ready.” Pyrrha said giving Jaune a large smile, this seemed to make Jaune happy and he put his forehead to hers. The next day Team JNPR packed their bags and made the boat ride from Vale to Patch, their arrival was a few days after Ruby had awoken, and it was also when they were told by her plan to travel to Mistral to help defend the Huntsman academy there. It would take them a while to get there on foot, but they figured they could.

            “Ready Ruby?” Jaune asked Ruby nodded and the five of them set off for Mistral. There was no telling what awaited them out there, but they knew that together they could bear any ordeal, and together the journey would be all the easier. 

 


	2. New Team, Old Members

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm surprised I managed to get this done so quickly, but I guess when you're significantly motivated you can work miracles, well that and when an ear infection keeps you up all night so you just decide to say "Fuck it!" and spend hours working on something until it's 3:00 AM and you're staring at your computer screen wondering what has become of your life, but I digress I worked hard so here are the fruits of my labor.

Deep in the far-off forest of Anima, two teens are arguing with another one in toe not joining but listening intently. How this argument started the silent teen will never know but here she was, listening to her friends argue about team names of all things.

“I’m just saying, there are more members of JNPR in this team than RWBY, it just makes sense to go with that one.” Nora said as the three walked to where Jaune was kneeling observing the place where the trap was to be set.

“But, JNNRR isn’t a color.”  Ren retorted poking another hole in Nora’s argument much to her annoyance.

“Ugh, how can I be more clear!” Nora started as she held out her hand as if invisible words were hovering above them, “One, two three four, that’s more than one.” Nora said counting off the members of Team JNPR that made up their team compared to Team RWBY.

“But were helping Ruby with her objective, so wouldn’t that her the leader?” Ren said as he pointed out that again, this was less of Team JNPR’s idea as it was Ruby Rose's idea. 

“Guys, focus.” Jaune said as he finished drawing up potential plans in his mind. He glanced back for a few seconds to see Pyrrha find a suitable hiding spot, “And besides JNNRR is way cooler.” Jaune said leading credibility to Nora’s argument, and with a ‘I told you so look she shouted.

“Exactly!” Nora said giving Ren a large grin at her winning one of their arguments, Ren was about to speak up but decided against it, feeling it would be a lost cause. The two were further interrupted in their argument by the sound of something rumbling in the distance.

“It’s here.” Jaune said calmly as he took his position behind a tree and the rest of Team JNPR prepared for the coming battle. Flying away from a mass of trees, firing Crescent Rose all the way, Ruby Rose, followed by the thing she was running from/ trying to lure to their trap spot. A giant mass of boulders that floated in midair, A Petra Gigas. Hitting several trees on her way down, Ruby was not having a good time.

“Bad…landing…strategy!” Ruby said as she hit nearly every branch on her way down, catching her bearings and landing on a sturdy enough tree Ruby looked out and used her semblance to fly past the Grimm.

“We gotta get that thing off her!” Jaune said as he sprang into action, pulling out his sword, with Ren jumping into the trees.

“Hey don’t forget me!” Nora yells as she shoots a grenade at her feet, propelling herself several feet off the ground.

“Be careful!” Pyrrha yells as she prepares her shield to lend support from afar. She missed being in the action, but in her current state, and with her lack of weapon for the time being she had to help the best way she could.

“We need to draw it away form Ruby.” Ren said as Ruby flew past him shooting still at the Petra Gigas.

“Need some help here!” Ruby yelled as she continued to try to fight the creature as best she could, Nora used Magnhild and fired a few grenades into the creatures back while Ren armed with Storm Flower ran up the creature, trying to cut it’s stone carapace with the dual SMGs blades to no effect.

“My blades don’t hurt him!” Ren yelled alerting the others of the Grimm’s tough hide. A shield went flying towards the creature getting it’s attention to the area of the throw and in return the thrower.

“Crap! Pyrrha watch out.” Nora yelled to warn her teammate hiding in the trees. Before the Gigas could enact any meaningful revenge. It was shot by a bullet charged with lighting.

“How about this?!” Ruby yelled as she fired another bullet this time into the Gigas’s arms. This seem to have no effect and only seem to piss off the monster more as it smashed the ground in rage sending Nora, Ruby, Ren and Jaune flying.

“Bring your girlfriend into this without her weapon, she’ll be fine she’s good in the back.” Jaune said lamenting how dangerous it was for Pyrrha to be in the situation in her current state. Looking at the tree he sighed and ran forward, he was also in a bind, he was lacking a weapon just as much as she was. This thing was tough, but there had to be a way to beat it. Then Pyrrha struck one of the joints of the creature knocking it’s arm off completely, this gave Jaune an idea.

“It’s body is too thick, we can’t break through.” Ren said as his last attack failed to make even a scratch on the Gigas. Jaune narrowed his eyes. 

“It doesn’t care about it’s body.” Jaune noted after observing the fight, “But it keeps protecting it’s face.” Jaune added as his plan began to grow in his mind.

“Anything we do to it, it fixes itself.” Pyrrha said, from afar, as she tossed her shield at it again.

“If we knock out all of its limbs and went for the face!” Jaune said as his plan was completely formulated, “Guys I got it! We hit it harder!” Jaune said confusing everyone on the team.

“Is that it?” Ren asked confused at their strategist’s plan, Jaune rolled his eyes and began to explain.

“Seriously.  It’s trying to keep us from it’s face, if we kill all the limbs, we’ll have a shot at killing the whole thing.” Jaune said explaining the crux of his plan. Ruby nodded and a smile formed on her face.

“Alright! Come on team, let’s do this!” Ruby yelled pumping the rest of the team up.

“Count on me!” Pyrrha yelled, as she got her shield back from the ground where it landed.

“Yeah!” Nora added pumping herself up to destroy the Gigas.

“Right!” Ren said, taking up arms again ready to put an end to this whole ordeal.

“Ren, Left. Ruby, right.” Jaune commanded the two nodded and hoped to action, Jaune then looked towards Nora, “Nora, ready to try out the new upgrades?” Nora nodded and ran towards the Grimm then Jaune looked towards where Pyrrha was hidden.

“Pyrrha, help me keep this thing distracted!” Jaune said as he ran hoping not to get crushed by the giant rock monster.

“Roger!” Pyrrha said as she launched her shield around using magnetism to control the shields trajectory and flight path confusing the Gigas alongside Jaune. Hopefully Nora would have Magnhild charged before he got injured.

“Ready!” Nora yelled indicating her weapon was ready to go.

“Use everything you’ve got!” Jaune yelled. Taking this cue Ruby launched at Nora taking her with her in a spiral of read and pink, past the arms slicing off it’s other arm and with Nora delivering the final blow on the body shattering most of the Grimm. The creature left the now unusable body, hoping to escape, but was too slow as Ruby pulled up Crescent Rose and fired the killing blow on the ghostly Grimm. Helping Pyrrha from her hiding spot, Jaune let out a tired breath.

“Another victory for Team JNNRR.” Jaune said hands on his hips and then deflated, “Yeah, I think you're onto something Ren it just doesn’t sound right anymore.” Jaune said as Pyrrha began laughing following behind him, leaving a now annoyed Nora behind. The return to the town that sent them to kill the Grimm was thankfully uneventful, While Ruby was dealing with the Mayor of the town Jaune and Pyrrha were talking.

“Part of me wishes you didn’t put yourself in so much danger.” Jaune said hugging Pyrrha tightly.

“Jaune, I’ll be fine, besides even with me like this.” Pyrrha said pointing to her slightly bloated belly, she was several months along in pregnancy, something that she oft reminded Jaune of since he played a significant role in making her pregnant, “I’m still able to help you guys.” Pyrrha said as the group made their way to the blacksmith where Pyrrah’s and Jaune’s new weapons were being forged.

“Here you go you two.” The blacksmith said as he pulled out several items from the back of the shop, one was a finely crafted set of armor for Jaune, alongside his Shield and sword combo, the other was a long red and gold rifle, Pyrrha’s new weapon: Mitéra agápi.

“I have to say, isn’t it a bit dangerous for a lady in your condition to be traveling and fighting Grimm.” The blacksmith said pointing out Pyrrha’s pregnant belly, she smiled and shook her head.

“I’m fine, I have my loving boyfriend, and my teammates to make sure nothing too bad happens to me.”  Pyrrha said as she wrapped her arm around Jaune who was inspecting his new armor. Jaune blushed as he removed his old set of armor to reveal his Pumpkin Pete hoodie, which made Pyrrha giggle slightly, especially when Ruby pointed out the bunny rabbit that was on the it. Ignoring this Jaune donned his new armor, and Pyrrha had to say, he looked rather dashing in it.

“You kids sure you don’t want to stick around.” The blacksmith asked as the team was leaving his shop.

“Sorry, we got another mission.” Ruby said proudly.

“Make it to Haven Academy no matter what.” Nora added Smiling at her team.

“We heard there's a working airship the next village over.” Ren said, The blacksmith thought for a moment.

“Hard to say, communication wasn’t the best around here, even when Beacon tower was still up, haven’t heard from Shion Village in a while.” The blacksmith added Ruby looked forward with determination, not willing to give up hope.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”  Ruby said as they gave a friendly wave to the blacksmith and departed for the next village Shion. But before they did they did a quick check of their provisions.

“Food?” Jaune asked with a check from Nora, “Water?” and another check form Nora. Well that was two things no longer needing worrying about.

“How about ammo?” He asked, knowing they all used up a lot of ammo fighting the Gigas a few hours ago.

“Locked and Loaded! Thank you, Schnee Dust Company!”. Nora said mentioning the company ran by their friend Weiss’s family.

“Got the map?” Jaune asked, when no one said anything he sighed. That was the fifth one this week. After stopping by a map maker and getting a new one the group embarked for Shion. 


	3. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I had some fun writing this one. I hope I'm not too hamfisted with the trauma that Pyrrha is facing and I hope I'm not doing a disservice to people with PTSD, I'm kinda new to writing about this stuff.

The sounds of blades clashing were all that could be heard, even amid the chaos of the world below. Two Combatants locked in a dual to decide the fate of both, one of light, the other of the purest dark. Letting out a roar of frustration one of the combatants began to lay upon the pressure to the other, harder, and faster, each strike more vicious than the last. Finally, the one of dark’s weapon was knocked free of her hand, sending her to her knees.

“It’s over cinder! You’re finished!” Pyrrha yelled as she pointed her blade at the neck of the soon to be dead Cinder Fall. Before she could plunge her blade into her neck, Cinder began laughing.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” Cinder said still laughing at Pyrrha, who glared down at Cinder, anger reaching a fervor pitch, “To know you would give up so much, just to end me.” Cinder said making Pyrrha's eyes widen. Grabbing Cinder by her shirts collar she stared her down, pure anger and rage.

“What the hell do you mean!?” Pyrrha yelled preparing to finish off Cinder, until she spoke up.

“Simple…look behind you.” Cinder said grimly, when Pyrrha turned around before her, crumpled and bloodied, were her teammates and friends. Falling to her knees Pyrrha let out a scream of terror, as she was ejected from her dream, or rather her nightmare.  Looking around she saw Jaune fast asleep in his sleeping bag, getting up from her sleeping bag Pyrrha walked away into the forest, mostly to clear her head.

“P-Pyrrha?” Ruby said sleepily as she saw her walk into the forest, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes she went to follow her team member, the last thing she wanted was for a heavily pregnant teen to get attacked by a Grimm in the middle of the night. She Saw Pyrrha sitting on a tree stump, breathing heavily.

“Pyrrha?” Ruby asked getting the redhead’s attention, Pyrrha gave Ruby a wry smile, her eyes downcast and nearly bloodshot, “You okay Pyrrha?” Ruby asked sitting down near her, she could see tears were welling in her eyes.

“So..so much blood.” Pyrrha said the dread showing ever present in her face, it was a dream, but part of her felt the reality of the situation, her friends; the ones she fought so hard to keep safe, dead, and dying before her. Ruby placed a hand around Pyrrha’s shoulder and sighed.

“It was that dream again wasn’t it?” Ruby asked remembering this happened once before, when Pyrrha nodded Ruby held her friend closer. She felt her friend sobbing into her shoulder, Pyrrha, the unbreakable girl was slowly breaking on the inside.

“It’s okay, we’re safe, Jaune, Ren, Nora, Me we’re all still here.” Ruby said helping Pyrrha to her feet, “Now come on, I imagine you need your sleep.” Ruby said as she lead Pyrrha back to their sleeping area. The next morning the five were breaking camp and preparing to continue their journey.

“Alright, that looks like everything, come on guys.” Jaune said as he hefted his sleeping bag onto his back. Judging by the map, it would probably take them another day or two to reach their destination. As they trekked through the forest, Ruby pulled Jaune aside to talk to him.

“Yeah Ruby, what is it?” Jaune asked trying to figure out what she wanted, it was rare that Ruby pulled him aside for talks, so whatever it was, was probably serious.

“It’s about Pyrrha.” Ruby said quietly so that the mentioned party would not hear them, “Her nightmares are getting worse.” Ruby said, making Jaune’s face drop. He was not sure when it started, but ever since her survival of the Battle of Beacon, Pyrrha had been periodically having nightmares, some about her dying unable to save her friends as they were slaughtered before her, others about Cinder hurting those she cared most for. Often, she’d wake up, nearly screaming in terror.

“Do you think there’s anything we can do for her right now?” Jaune asked wondering if he could keep Pyrrha from going further and further down that road.

“I don’t know, until we can figure something out, we’ll just have to keep an eye on her, and be there for her when they get too bad.” Ruby said, Jaune looked at Pyrrha noticing this she gave him a friendly smile and waved at him.

“Yeah, I guess that’s why we're here.” Jaune said as he walked ahead to meet back with the others. After a few hours of walking the group took a short break to rest and take stock of where they were going.

“Hey, you doing okay today?” Jaune asked Pyrrha as he held her closely, one of his hands lovingly rubbing her pregnant belly. Pyrrha giggled and nodded letting Jaune’s arms hold her tightly.

“Yes, I’m good, dear.” Pyrrha said as she looked at the sky, it was blue today, “I take it Ruby told you what happened last night?” Pyrrha said, When Jaune nodded Pyrrha made a small sigh.

“I know it can’t be helped, but know, I’m here for you, and for as long as I’m around, I’ll always be here for you.” Jaune said as he tightened his hold on Pyrrha just a little more. After a few hours of eating and resting the group was ready to head off into again.

“So! Let’s see the next town is…” Ruby started looking all over the map, not sure what she was looking at, “We’re lost.” Ruby said in defeat, making Jaune laugh a bit.

“We’re not lost, the next town is Shion.” Jaune said remembering his families time in the village when he was younger, “My family used to visit there all the time.” Jaune said making the others imagine what a younger Jaune would do while out here.

“Oh yeah. Don’t you have, like, four sisters?” Ruby asked trying to remember how many sisters Jaune had, He rubbed the back of his head and corrected her.

“Uh, Seven.” He said remembering the times he had with his sisters. Ruby and Pyrrha laugh at this, much to Jaune’s embarrassment.

“You know, that would explain a lot.” Nora said giving Pyrrha a knowing sideline glance.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jaune asked not getting an answer form Nora, again much to his annoyance.

“So, what did you guys do there?” Ruby asked hoping to get an idea of  area from someone who’s been there before. Jaune thought for a second and spoke up.

“Oh, all sorts of stuff! Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special. Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair.” Jaune said embarrassed at the last point.

“Didn’t like the look?” Ruby asked, trying to think of Jaune in braids.

“Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but I’m more of a warrior's wolftail kind of guy, you know?” Jaune said earning a amused eye roll from Ruby.

“That’s just a ponytail.” Ruby said poking a hole in Jaune’s hair argument

“I stand by what I said.”  Jaune said proudly ignoring Ruby’s eye roll again.

“Uh…guys?” Nora said looking forward in pure horror, catching Jaune and Ruby’s attention. Looking away from the map, they see what the rest of the team saw, a village desolate and devoid of life. Dropping the map, the five rushed inside in the hopes of finding survivors.

“Over here!” Ren said as he found one man, propping himself up against a wall, a badly beaten and bleeding man, clinging to the tethers of life.

“A huntsman.” Ruby said noticing his armor,

“What happened here? Who killed all these people?” Jaune asked hoping that he wouldn’t succumb to his injuries so quick. The man coughed up some blood and tried his best to answer.

“B-bandits. The whole tribe of them… then with all the panic.” The man tried to continue, but kept coughing up blood, Ren looked around and narrowed his eyes.

“Grimm.” Was all he said the others turned to him to try to piece this whole bloody situation together, and what to do with the mortally injured hunter.

“Alright, we can get him to the next village and find a doctor there?” Ruby asked not sure if they’d be able to carry the man.

“I’m not sure, he’s lost a lot of blood.” Pyrrha said noting all the blood he’d coughed up and was oozing out of his wounds.

“We have to try.” Jaune said determined to not see another person die against the Grimm.

“Guys.” Ren said getting the others attention, they turned to see the now dead hunter. Ren walked away, Nora following behind. Leaving Ruby Pyrrha and Jaune to still look over his lifeless body. They were about to leave, but Pyrrha for some reason couldn’t move.

“Pyrrha, you okay?” Jaune said, with worry on his face, her eyes were wide, and staring at the dead hunter, never blinking, never moving, her knees were becoming weak.

“Pyrrha! Snape out of it!” Jaune yelled trying to snap his girlfriend out of her shock, “Remember, I’m still here! Ruby’s still here! Nora and Ren are still here!”  Jaune said holding Pyrrha tight, her breathing became much clearer and she held onto Jaune.

“I-I’m fine, let’s…let’s just leave here.” Pyrrha said as she propped herself onto Jaune who helped her move, her legs still slightly weak.

“I’m sorry, for what happened back at the village.” Pyrrha said looking at the fire, as it roared the flames making her feel warm. Jaune held her hands and placed his forehead to hers.

“Don’t apologize, I’ll help you through this, not just for you, but for them.” Jaune said as he rubbed Pyrrha's pregnant belly, “We’ll get through this, I promise you.” Jaune said as he pulled Pyrrha into a kiss the two seperating as quickly as it started. This was going to be a long couple of months, but hopefully he’d be able to help Pyrrha through her nightmares and the rest of her trauma. 


	4. Inn between

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...this took so long to write mainly because A: The power went out in my house and we didn't get any power until today and B: Trying to write filler is weird, I don't like it but this is I guess filler that serves a purpose.

The sun was shining bright down upon the Anima forest as Team RRNNJ trekked through the forest, it had been a day since they left Shion village.  The group had set up camp for the night ad were sitting around a fire enjoying some of the food rations they had and talking.

“So, you two decide on a name for the kid yet?” Nora asked pointing to Pyrrha’s belly, as she ate some canned food. Pyrrha thought for a moment, they hadn’t really thought about a name for their soon to be born child, heck they didn’t even know the child’s sex at the moment. Looking at Jaune he seemed to be in just as much thought as she was.

“Not really, I guess we’ll think of one when they’re born.” Pyrrha answered smiling at Nora who seemed to take this as a good enough answer. She looked around her, her friends were talking and enjoying food, it was like they were back at Beacon again, but…this wasn’t Beacon, that place was long gone, nothing was bringing it back.

“Hey, you okay dear?” Jaune asked noticing Pyrrha lost deep in thought, nodding then a rather malicious thought reared in her head, and she couldn’t help but say it.

“You know Nora, Ren and you are rather close, maybe you’ll end up like me and Jaune.” Pyrrha said giving Nora a knowing look with a sly grin plastered on her face, this caused Nora to spit out her food and scramble to explain her and Ren’s relationship. Pyrrha laughed at this while Jaune gave her a slightly disappointed look. The night passed without much incident with the rest turning in the for the night except Jaune and Pyrrha. The fire was starting to die down, now only consisting of a few embers, slowly burning.

“You know that was kinda mean what you did with Nora.” Jaune said poking the fire with a stick, the face he made showed he wasn’t too mad about what Pyrrha did, she was glad about this, “So you think you’ll be good tonight?” Jaune asked, Pyrrha knew what he was talking about and nodded. Kissing her gently on the lips Jaune sighed.

“Okay, but I’ll be right next to you if you need me.” Jaune said as he went to the sleeping bags. Pyrrha sat in the dark for a few minutes, looking at where the fire once blazed, it’s orange hue gone and now replaced with charred and denuded ash. Ash, it reminded her too much of…her and the pain she wrought upon her and her friends. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and went to the sleeping bags, after a few minutes of tossing and turning she fell into a dreamless sleep, she liked those the most, they didn’t give her the nightmares.

The next morning was rather standard for Team RRNNJ breaking camp and reading their map (if they haven’t lost it for the umpteenth time in a month,) to gauge their next move, eating breakfast and anything else that needed to be done at this time of the day. Pyrrha was usually the one in charge alongside Ren with packing up the sleeping bags. After everything was done for the day the team began the rest of their trip.

“Alright! Next town here we come!” Ruby yelled excitedly, “Come on if we hurry we can make it to the next town before sunrise!” Ruby said trying to goad her teammates to pick up their pace and head to the next town faster.

“If it’s still there.” Jaune said pessimistically, Pyrrha placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and gave him a warm smile

“Of course, it’ll be there! This place is supposed to be pretty big! Hee-gan...bayn-a.” Ruby said trying to sound out the name of their next town, Ren spoke up and corrected her.

“Higanbana, it’s a well-protected village with a rather popular inn.” Ren said and almost all of their eyes lit up at the sound of an inn, aside from the first couple of villages they visited in Anima, they hadn’t run into a inn in ages, the prospect of properly cooked food, warm beds and more importantly separate sleeping quarters was a boon to their morale.

“Which means no camping in the rain!” Nora said as she pointed out the soon to be arriving storm clouds.

“See? Everything’s going to be fine.” Ruby said giving Jaune a friendly punch on the shoulder and walking forward. To meet Ren and Nora.

“You know, we’ve had some highs and lows, but I guess things could be worse.” Jaune said as he then thought of the fact that they hadn’t ran into any Grimm while traveling so far, “You know I’m surprised we haven’t run into more Grimm.” Jaune said hoping to god that he hadn’t jinxed them by saying that.

“Same, but I guess our lucks looking up.” Nora said as someone they could not see observed them from afar. When they arrived at the inn Team RRNNJ were positively drenched from head to toe. So it was a nice change of pace to be in a place with a roaring fire and warm food.

“Man, it’s been a while since I’ve eaten this good.” Nora said patting her belly happily and letting out a content burp, much to Ren’s embarrassment, “Though I think Pyrrha had me beat in terms of eating.” Nora said pointing out that Pyrrha ate nearly three plates of food. This made the redhead blush.

“Well I can’t help it, I am eating for two after all.” Pyrrha said proudly making Nora laugh hard at this, after paying for their meals the team split up to head to their respective rooms. Jaune yawned as he flopped onto the bed, it had been ages since the team had a proper shower, so Pyrrha was busy enjoying a hot shower, Jaune waiting patiently for her to leave the bathroom so he could take his.

“The showers free Jaune!” Pyrrha said as she stepped out of the bathroom, Jaune got up and stopped in his tracks, blushing wildly as he came face to face with a stark naked Pyrrha. Turning his head away, Pyrrha laughed at this.

“Jaune, we’ve seen each other in far, far more compromising positions.” Pyrrha said as she pulled him closer to her, making Jaune’s eyes bug out a bit more.

“I-I know it’s just…embarrassing.” Jaune said trying to not make his embarrassment shown, this was a lot harder when his pregnant girlfriend wasn’t poking and prodding him, and making him try to wriggle away. He was thankfully able to free himself from her grasp and take his shower in peace.  When he exited Pyrrha was already fast asleep. Snuggling up to her and holding her close Jaune soon followed suit.

That night Pyrrha dreamt again, she was in a void, devoid of life, light or anything resembling warmth or happiness. She tried moving but no matter how much she struggled or fought her limbs would not budge. She was anchored in this nothingness.

“Aw, poor Pyrrha.” She heard a voice that she dreaded hearing in her dreams. Appearing beside her in the void was Cinder, and she had a grin that said that whatever Pyrrha heard from her next, she was not going to like.

“To think, you came so far, yet it was all for naught.” Cinder said in a mocking tone as she brushed a stray hair from Pyrrha’s face and glared at her, her eyes glowing with the stolen maiden powers, “But have heart to know, your death will be…relatively painless.” Cinder said as she plunged her hand into Pyrrha’s chest, this jolted her awake. She was breathing heavily, her body covered in a cold sweat. Looking around she saw she was still in the inn that the team had stopped by that night and let out a sigh of relief. Laying back down she looked up at the ceiling and let out another sigh. She reluctantly went back to sleep and was able to not see any more nightmares for the rest of it. The following morning Team RRNNJ left the inn, much to the groups disappointment.

“Whelp, goodbye nice beds, warm showers and hot food.” Ruby said downcast at the loss of some of the amenities.

“Hello again, sleeping beds and camp food.” Pyrrha said looking at their map and pointing to where they were going to next. The five of them looked at the path ahead of them and most of them grinned, hopefully they weren’t that far from their goal of Haven academy. 


	5. Hunted and the Hunters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this took a long time to write, I blame collage and laziness, but I'm glad I finally got this done, and I'm not even halfway since this is supposed to run from Volume 4 to Volume 5 so I got a ways to go.

            It had been a couple of days since Team RRNNJ had left the inn. For the most part things had been uneventful, save for a few times Pyrrha had to stop the group due to her current condition. It was currently overcast, giving things a rather dower and overall downtrodden feeling.

            “Another day, another adventure.” Nora said throwing her arms in the air trying to liven up the party, seeing as everyone was in rather sour moods.

            “It’s not much of an adventure when we haven’t seen a Grimm in almost a week.” Pyrrha said as she looked up into the sky seeing a black bird flying in the distance, which was odd to say the least since ravens nor crows were to be seen around this area much.

            “So, what’s on the agenda today?” Ruby asked hoping something exciting would happen today to alleviate the boredom, the answer that Jaune gave her made her more annoyed.

            “Walking.” Jaune said looking at the map trying to concentrate on where they were going.

            “With a side of…?” Nora asked elongating her sentence waiting for Jaune to again answer, but instead being given an answer by Ren.

            “Walking.” Ren said as deadpan as he could ever, much to Nora’s chagrin. This seemed to be the breaking point for Ruby who let out a tired and bored sigh.

            “Haven is a lot farther away than I thought.” Ruby said trying to not groan from boredom.

            “Ruby?” Ren started turning to their leader with a quizzical look on his face “How long did you think this journey was going to take?” Ren asked.

            “I don’t know! I grew up in a small area; I’ve never been this far from home.” Ruby said throwing her arms up in the air in annoyance at the prodding questions.

            “Right, but how long?” Pyrrha asked hoping that it wouldn’t be too low a number.

            “Maybe like, uh…two weeks?” Ruby said in a rather mousey voice this almost stopped the group dead in their tracks.

            ”What!?” Jaune yelled as he looked at the map and back at Ruby and then back at the map, trying to figure out how Ruby got two weeks from their trip. 

            “Okay, fine! Three or something.” Ruby said not making eye contact with the other four least she be judged by their very judging eyes, “Look whatever!” Ruby yelled as looked up, she then noticed something up ahead.

            “Hey, what’s that?” Ruby asked as she pointed to the seemingly abandoned villager ahead of them. Nora jumped ahead onto a broken fencepost to get a better vantage point of the town. Jaune looked at the map noticing there was no village for miles ahead.

            “That’s strange, I didn’t think we’d be hitting another village for a few days.” Jaune said as he checked his map again, making sure he didn’t misread anything that might have lead them to another village sooner than they thought.

            “Are those buildings…damaged?” Nora asked as she dropped down from where she was standing on the post to meet back up with the rest of the team.

            “We should search for survivors.” Pyrrha said as the others nodded in agreement and they began searching, leaving their map behind. Seeming to find no one around the village was a ghost town, with only some overgrowth and a few dilapidated buildings around.

            “Anything?” Ruby asked the team as she continued to look for any sign of survivors.

            “Nothing.” Nora said in defeat.

            “Nothing here either.” Pyrrha added as she came from an empty building finding only a few bones and some abandoned crates.

            “It almost seems like the town was…abandoned.” Ren said trying to see if he could see anything about the place. Pyrrha could feel something was making her uneasy, at first she thought it might be pregnancy related but she saw Ruby’s face and knew it wasn’t her.

            “You feeling uneasy too?” Pyrrha asked Ruby who nodded, before they could question this further they heard Nora cry out.

            “Hey, I think I found something!” Nora yelled the two turned to the sound and ran over to Nora. It was a town sign, covered in ivy. After removing the overgrown plants, they saw the name of the village: Oniyuri.

            “Oniyuri?” Nora said as she tried to think of any town she heard of on their map with that name, coming up with blanks each time, “Never heard of it.” Nora said looking to her other teammates trying to gauge their knowledge of the place.

            “Me neither.” Jaune said shrugging his shoulders.

            “I have.” Ren said making the others turn to him, surprise on their faces, “You might think of it as Anima’s Mountain Glenn, had it never been completed.” Ren said reminding Ruby of her trip there in her first semester.

            “Years ago, the richest members of Mistral were unhappy with how the kingdom was being run.” Ren said continuing to recount the history of Oniyuri in detail.

            “Frustrated with the council, they pooled their resources together to build their own city, with their own laws.” Ren said looking down at the ground, sadness swelling in his heart, “They hoped that one day, it could maybe even become its own Kingdom. Many thought it would be the future.” Ren said walking away from the sign before adding one last caveat to his tale.

            “I know my parents did.” Ren said in a downcast voice, the four looked at their friend unsure what to say, Ruby quietly spoke up.

            “What happened?” Ruby asked not sure if she really wanted the answer to her question but, Ren gave her one. One that made her heart sink a little.

            “What always happens.” Ren said as he brushed some plants out of the way of a wall to reveal several claw marks, indicating exactly what happened to the village.

            “The Grimm.”  Jaune said dimly, everyone knew how destructive the Grimm could be to even large settlements.

            “Not just any, one” Ren said as his memory flashed of that horrible day.

            “One?” Ruby asked, wondering how one Grimm could cause so much destruction, none of them were sure what to say, so Jaune spoke up.

            “Come on, let’s just get through here, this place creeps me out.” Jaune said as he motioned for the others to move, they followed suit. As they made their way through the empty and desolate town, Pyrrha felt that…dreading sense, she turned to Ren, who was also feeling it. She could tell by his face. Ren motions for the others to stop. Looking around trying to detect the what he was sensing, then as if by instinct he produced Stormflower, with the others getting their weapons. This was immediately answered by a man in a trenchcoated landing in front of them, drawing his weapons.

            He ran towards Ruby but, was cut off by Ren who blocked him. Blocking Stormflower’s shots, the unknown man kicked Ren, sending him flying into a nearby dry fountain.  He then turned his attention back to Ruby who pulled up Crescent Rose and tried to block his attacks. Knocking some of her Aura out, he kicked her and jumped on Jaune’s shield, before he blocked a shot by Pyrrha. This almost distracted him long enough for Nora to hit him with Magnhild, but he jumped away from her, landing in a nearby tower.

            “We’re not looking for a fight!” Jaune yelled to the unknown man, hoping to avoid any further conflict.

            “Who are you?” Ren asked pulling up Stormflower again. The unknown man let out a slight cackle as he landed on the ground with nary a scratch on him from fighting Team RRNNJ, he then looked at the five of them.

            “Who I am, matters not to you.” He said as he pointed to Ren, “Or you.” He added as he then pointed to Nora, when he got to Jaune and Pyrrha he paused for a moment “You two do interest me.” The man said with a creepy grin on his face, The two were taken aback by this but kept their guards up.

            “No, I only matter, to you.” He said as he pointed to Ruby who was surprised by this, she looked around trying to figure out why she was so important.

            “M-me?” Ruby asked in confusion, this seemed to be funny to the unknown man as he let out another mad cackle.

            “You, you haven’t  the slightest clue, do you?” He asked, a Cheshire grin spreading across his face, “Oh, how exciting this must be.” He said getting on Ruby’s bad side.

            “What do you want?” Ruby asked angrily hoping this unknown assailant would get to the point instead of wasting their time. This piqued the mans interest as he began acting in a faux serious manor.

            “Oh, the rose has thorns!” He said laughing again, “My little flower, I’m here to whisk you away with me.” Tyrion said creepily. Nora stepped in front of Ruby holding Magnhild in her hand.

            “Well, what if she doesn’t want to go with you?” Nora asked in a menacing tone. With a bemused look on his face the man looked at the five, then spoke up.

            “Well, I’ll take her.” He said this urged the rest of Team RRNNJ to come before their leader.

            “We’re not going to led you do that.” Pyrrha said as she leveled Mitéra agápi towards the unknown man, This amused him as he put on another grin.

            “Good.” In a flash he appeared behind Pyrrha, and as if by instinct Jaune called out.

            “Pyrrha!” He yelled as he blocked the shot that was nearly about to hit her. This didn’t affect him much as the unknown man spun around on his shield, kicking Ruby out of the way and sending her flying. Jaune attempted to slice him with his sword but the man jumped out of the way, and kicked Jaune in the head before sending him flying with a kick in the gut. He then turned his attention to Nora who he ran towards, but before he could do so a sniper shot rang out, sending an electrified bullet past him, striking Nora in the chest. The shot came from Ruby who managed to steady herself after getting hit.

            Slapping his face, the man began to laugh, thinking that Ruby had killed one of her teammates he then turned to Ruby still laughing.

            “Well, isn’t that ironic.” He said not noticing Nora rise from the ground, the staticky sound of the electricity that was now coursing through her veins. The rest of team RRNNJ knowing what was up had determined looks on their ace, as the man finally caught wind of what had happened.

            In a matter of seconds Nora ran up to him and hit him with a supercharged attack form Magnhild causing dust to bellow all around the group, shielding their eyes, they waited for the dust to clear. When it did they saw The man holding the hammer with a scorpion tail.

            “Surprise.” He said giddily as he kicked Nora and jumped onto a nearby pillar, losing his coat in the process, now on full display his scorpion tail hang above his left shoulder as he stood proudly.

            “He’s… a faunus.” Ren said noticing the animal trait on him.

            “What is this about?” Ruby asked, tired of the non-answers that the man was giving her and her team, “The White Fang, Roman Torchwick?” She asked trying to gauge some kind of motivation for why this man was now attacking them.  

            “Plastic soldiers and Pawns.” He said as he bowed and added a slight bit of flamboyance to his movements, “My heart and body belongs only to our goddess.” The man said as he raised his hands in the air as if in prayer.

            “Cinder.” Ruby said, the man seemed to take this in jest.

            “Hmph, only in her wildest dreams.” The man said  as he leaped towards Ruby, using his tail to knock Crescent Rose away, before knocking ruby back. He then turned his tail towards Ren, who narrowly dodges before being kicked himself. He then turned to Pyrrha who tried to fire several rounds at him while backing up. He lunged at her but, was stopped by Jaune holding up his shield trying to protect his girlfriend and unborn child.

            “Pyrrha! Get to somewhere safe!” Jaune said as Pyrrha nodded and began to run before being kicked onto the ground, The man then kicked Nora who was trying to perform a surprise attack. He then turned his attention back to Ruby punching her with his weapons extended, each hit doing major damage to her Aura, he then delivered a large blow with his tail sending her flying before he ran full speed to where she was going to land, and delivered the final blow; a kick to her gut sending her to the ground. Defenseless and with her friends unable to help, Ruby was at the mercy of this unknown scorpion faunus. Before he could strike her with his tail, A man with raven black hair blocked the attack, with near effort, holding his sword between Ruby and the tail. Ruby and the man make eye contact with the two smiling at each other. Standing between her doom and her, was Ruby's uncle: Qrow Branwen. 

            “Hey.” Qrow said to Ruby, apologetically 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God, so much direct dialogue I had to take from the show, also real hard to fit Pyrrha into a fight since she's pregnant and while I imagine Aura can do some amazing things, it's probably not a good idea to put a pregnant lady in direct combat. Hopefully I can remedy that next time.


	6. Fairytales and Anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is probably one of the longest chapters to date for this story, and I'm rather proud of it, also thanks guys for the comments and tips, makes writing this all the more easier. Though I do have to abridge a lot of dialogue from the series, because well there's a lot of it and I can only directly transcribe so much.

Standing in an abandoned village, between his niece and death, Qrow Branwen was holding back a giant scorpion faunus tail. Feeling the pressure from said weapon leave, he turned to face the grinning man, who seemed excited to see him of all things, readying his weapon Qrow prepared for what the scorpion faunus’s next attack would be.

“As I live and breathe, Qrow Branwen.” The man said grinning even larger, “A true Huntsman has entered the fray!” He said excitedly, off in the distance Ruby stood up, and grabs Crescent Rose. Qrow gives ruby a sidelong glance trying to figure out who the hell this guy was.

“I don’t know, this guy’s weird.” Ruby replied to her uncle’s silent question. Turning his attention back to the scorpion man, Qrow narrowed his eyes.

Look, pal, I’m not sure who you are, but you need to leave my niece alone.” Qrow said in a threatening tone, this seemed to get a laugh out of the man as he looked at Qrow.

“Why, my friend, my name is Tyrian.” Tyrian said introducing himself as he clasped his hands tighter he then pointed to Ruby “And I’m afraid that is not possible. My assignment from Her Grace was to retrieve this young girl. So, that is what I must do. One does not upset the Queen.” Tyrian said creeping Ruby out even more.

“Queen?” Ruby asked unsure who he kept referring to, especially since he disproved that said Queen wasn’t Cinder.

“Salem.” Qrow replied Ruby, still confused as to who either of them was referring to.

“Who?” Ruby asked again, trying to clear up and make sense of any of what these two were talking about. This idle chit chat seemed to make Tyrian bored as he shouted.

“I think we’ve had enough talk, don’t you?” He asked as he crouched preparing to attack, Qrow seeing this gripped his weapon.

“You took the words right ou-“Before Qrow could finish his sentence Tyrian lunged at him, with Qrow blocking each blow as Tyrian tried to slice at him with his weapons. Combining jabs from his weapons with attacks from his tail Tyrian and Qrow clashed. With the final blow sending shockwaves that knocked out a part of a nearby building.  Flying away from him Tyrian activated his weapons gun form and began shooting at Qrow with the older Huntsman blocking each shot. Seeing that he might need some help, Ren and Nora grabbed their weapons and rushed towards Qrow, in the hopes of providing him much needed support. Tyrian seemed to anticipate this as he stretched his back at a garish angle and gave them a creepy smile. Blocking both of their attacks, he spun and twirled around as if he were dancing kicking them both in opposite directions. Running at the team he was stopped again by Qrow holding him at bay.

“Don’t come any closer!” Qrow ordered the teens, keeping Tyrian at bay. Ruby narrowed her eyes and motioned at a nearby roof nodding, Pyrrha knew what she wanted.

“Fine.” Ruby said as she grabbed Pyrrha careful not to cause her any undo harm and the two leapt to a nearby building and set up to provide covering fire for Qrow. With Crescent Rose and Mitéra agápi leveled and ready, the two tried to get a bead on Tyrian, but Qrow and his bout was moving too fast for the two to get a solid shot.  Eventually Tyrian after disarming Qrow stopped, and two shots rang out nearly hitting him. This didn’t seem to phase him as he blocked shot after shot from Pyrrha and Ruby with his tail as if they were flies simply bothering him.  This seemed amble enough distraction to Qrow as he balled his hand into a fist and proceeded to deck Tyrian in the face. Clutching his face in Pain, Tyrian had barely enough time to register that Qrow was punching him again, and again before being kicked in the chest and sent flying.  Then with a casual strut and grin, Qrow went to his weapon imbedded in a nearby wall, this seemed to be what Tyrian wanted as he lunged at Qrow, jumping out of the way, Qrow was standing on the larger part of his blade, Qrow activated his swords alternate form and shot himself upward grabbing ahold of an exposed beam of wood.

Tyrian saw this and rushed towards Qrow destroying the beam under him and tried to attack Qrow once more, with each attempt being blocked. Qrow glancing to the side saw a beam that was slightly damaged, and an idea formed. Running away from Tyrian who jumped, landing on the beam, and falling into the house below. Before Qrow could make his getaway though his leg was grabbed by Tyrians tail dragging him in and collapsing most of the roof on top of them. Ruby saw this and rushed to meet her uncle just as a wall exploded with Qrow flying out, using his blade to slow himself down, before stopping, standing on the hilt of his blade, his Aura flashing for a few seconds. In the dust of the house a dark purple Aura flashed, and Tyrian lunged at Qrow again, but was stopped by Ruby’s scythe connecting with his blades.

“Ruby!” Jaune yelled trying to get to his friend but was held back by Ren, Tyrian looked at Ruby with an incredulous look at her boldness and possible stupidity in his opinion.

“Do you wish to be taken?” Tyrian asked Ruby narrowed her eyes ready to finish this fight once and for all.

“No! But I won’t stand by and watch someone get hurt!” Ruby yelled as she lunged at Tyrian alongside Qrow the two clashing with Tyrian as he blocked both of their blows simultaneously, Ruby was the first to recover and attempted to keep up the pressure on Tyrian, almost getting a stinger in the face until Qrow blocked the attack.

“Ruby, what did I say? Get back!” Qrow yelled at his niece trying to make sure she didn’t feel the brunt of his semblance.

“This is my fight, too!” Ruby yelled as she ran around Tyrian to attack him from behind. Tyrian dropping away from Qrow rushed towards Ruby and drop kicked her, timing it just as a beam was about to fall on her but, before it did Qrow slashed it out of the air, this was short lived as Qrow let out a pained gasp as Tyrian ripped across his rib with his stinger, slightly injecting the venom that coursed through it. Gaining the full brunt of Ruby’s anger for this, Ruby positioned Crescent Rose behind the base of the Stinger and with a shot of her rifle severed the stinger from the tail.

Crying out in pain and in bitterness Tyrian turned to Ruby looking at his now mangled and decapitated tail, the stinger bleeding as venom dripped out of it, staining the ground.

“You bitch!” Tyrian yelled at Ruby as the pain of losing his tail clouded his mind, looking around he saw that the rest of the team had gathered to surround Ruby in protection knowing that he was now disabled and not in a good state of mind, well lesser state of mind than his already crazy one, he knew he couldn’t fight them in this current condition.

“She’ll forgive you.” Tyrian says to himself as he runs off leaving Team RRNNJ and Qrow behind. Qrow then collapsed clutching his wound with Ruby rushing to his side to see if he was okay.

“Uncle Qrow!” Ruby yelled as she looked at the older huntsman Team RRNNJ looked at one another, unsure what to do to help him, most of them only had some rudimentary first-aid training with Ren having the best, but neither had any experience with venom nor any antivenom on hand.

“I-I’ll be fine he just grazed me.” Qrow said trying to lessen the teens fears, he pulled his hand away from his wound to show the blood, starting to become stained with purple from the venom slowly wreaking havoc on his insides.

“Who was that guy?” Nora said asking the biggest question on everyone’s mind, well one of the bigger ones anyway, with Ren asking another.

“How did you get here?” Ren asked wondering how Qrow found them so fast, and Jaune asked the last one.

“Why are people after Ruby?” Jaune asked wondering why a random scorpion faunus would up and attack them without any provocation whatsoever, Qrow simply turned to them, still clutching his wounds.

“What’s your favorite fairy tale?” He asked as he lost consciousness, Team RRNNJ looked at one another unsure what to do. But for the time being they had to move before any more people showed up and attacked them. So, hefting him over their shoulders Ren and Jaune carried him out of the destroyed village and hopefully somewhere safe. By the time night had fallen they had moved a good distance away from the village and had set up camp. By then Qrow had regained consciousness and was now talking to them explaining what was going on.

“Really? No Questions?” Qrow asked a bit unsure why the teens weren’t asking him about what he just explained to them, about Maidens and everything that had transpired, he could get why Pyrrha wasn’t since out of all the group she knew the most of them all besides Qrow, and even then, she only had a fraction of the information on hand.

“Of course, we have questions,” Jaune said as he turned to Pyrrha knowing what he wanted to bring up, “This is just…a lot to take in.” Jaune finished, looking back at Qrow, sighing the older huntsman spoke up again.

“Sure, of Course” Qrow said in a slight dismissing tone. He knew what was on Jaune’s mind, and it had to do with Pyrrha.

“So, these…Maidens… they’re powerful fighters that don’t need Dust to use magic.” Ruby said recounting what Qrow had told them about the maidens and their powers.

“And there are four of them?” Nora asked still in slight disbelief of what she heard from Ruby’s uncle. Qrow nodded and answered.

“Yup, always.” Qrow answered to the two of them, Ren then spoke up.

“Which means that, whenever one of them dies, the power transfers to someone- a female-that they cared about?” Ren asked all while this was going on, a slow anger was building in Jaune as he learned more and more what they tried to do to his girlfriend.

“Whoever was in their thoughts last.” Qrow said correcting Ren on a specific distinction of the Maidens power transfer. “Important distinction. Best option is someone we can trust. Regardless, their souls become combined, in a way.” Qrow said, this seemed to be the dam that burst forth for Jaune since he stood up and looked at Qrow.

“And that’s what you were trying to do to Pyrrha…that night when the tower fell, you were trying to turn her into tone of them!” Jaune shouted his anger bubbling forth, Pyrrha stood up and hugged her boyfriend close trying to calm him down, so he wouldn’t do anything he would regret later.

“Look kid, the previous Fall Maiden was attacked, inexperienced, and her assailant who we know now as Cinder nearly stole all of her power.” Qrow said trying to defend himself and his colleagues, “We were worried that if we didn’t do something, the rest would go to her as well.” Qrow added this seemed to not abate Jaune’s anger as he looked Qrow square in the eyes, tears nearly falling from his.

“You forced her!” Jaune yelled tears flooding from his eyes, Pyrrha held him closer and as he calmed down, she spoke up.

“They didn’t force me Jaune…I…I made my decision, just please calm down.” Pyrrha said as she tried to keep Jaune in check, she knew how much he wanted to get to whoever nearly caused her death, but he was angry, and he had a right to be, but she wasn’t going to let his anger consume him, especially if it meant attracting any Grimm to his negative emotions.

“Sorry.” Jaune said as he walked off, Pyrrha followed him. His eyes were red with tears, and he was seething with anger at Qrow, at Ozpin at everyone who made her had to choose such a heavy burden.

“Jaune, look at me.” Pyrrha said as she held his face, he looked her in the eyes, “I know your angry, you have the right to, but now is not the best time. We’ll work through this, together, remember not just for me or you, but for them.” Pyrrha said as she took one of his hands and placed it on her pregnant belly, he nodded.  The two returned to the camp, and after Qrow continued to brief them on what happened, including his using of his own niece as bait for Tyrian, and that the other headmasters of the other Huntsman academies were all part of Ozpin’s mater plan to stop Salem.

“Alright, what should we do?” Ruby asked trying to see what their next course of action should be, Qrow shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t really know.” Qrow said much to the teens disappointment, they look at each other nervousness and a bit of trepidation on their faces. They then return their gazes back to Qrow.

“Look, Ozpin, put a lot of trusts in the headmaster's, the schools are an important part of stopping Salem.”  Qrow said as he sat up, still feeling pain where Tyrian stung him, “we’ll just have to tackle that when we get to Haven.” Qrow said as she laid down, trying to ease some of the pain.

“Alright, I think it’s time you kids get some sleep.” Qrow said trying to close his eyes so he could possibly sleep some of the pain of.

“Uncle Qrow?” Ruby asked trying to keep her resolve in order, turning to his niece Qrow saw this in her eyes.

“Yeah?” Qrow asked in return, Ruby stood up and looked her uncle squarely in the eyes.

“This is a lot to take in, and it all sounds crazy, but... I'm willing to do whatever I can to help because I trust you.” Ruby said as she looked down again, unsure how to start her next sentence, but got the resolve to speak again. “But why couldn't you trust me? Why couldn't you just travel with us, instead of this secrecy, and, and-“Ruby was cut off by Qrow holding up his hand trying to get his niece to calm down.

“Look, this isn’t really about trust. I…it’s a long story, okay?” Qrow said hoping that would satisfy Ruby and the rest of her team.

“Seriously? Now you’re tired of telling us stories?” Nora said in disbelief at what Qrow had just said, he sighed again. Deciding to give them one last story.

“Did you know that crows are a sign of bad luck? Old superstition, but it's how I got my name. See, some people can absorb electricity and some people can burst into rose petals and some people are just born unlucky.” Qrow said looking at Nora and then Ruby mentioning both of their Semblances, “ My Semblance isn't like most - it's not exactly something I do. It's always there, whether I like it or not. I bring misfortune.” Qrow said bitterly looking at the five teens, and then looking at the sky, where a red eyed raven was sitting on a perch.

“I guess you could call me a bad luck charm,” Qrow said as he chuckled a bit “Comes in real handy when fighting an enemy, but makes it a little hard on friends, and family.” He said the last bit looking directly at Ruby.

“Well, you are just a real bundle of help, aren’t you?” Jaune said annoyed at Qrow by this point. He walked off in the distance, Pyrrha following him to make sure he didn’t do anything too rash.

“Where are you going?” Ren asked concerned for Jaune but he didn’t answer, and Pyrrha only gave him a worried glance.

“Taking a walk.” Qrow said nonchalantly, he then turned to Ruby again.

“There’s nothing else you want to tell us?” Ruby asked, Qrow then looked up to the raven again, and shook his head,

“Not tonight.” He said as he drifted off to sleep, the next morning the teens were all sleeping, the campfire long burned out. The first to wake up was Ren.

“We should probably get moving.” Ren said as he got out of his sleeping bag, waking up Pyrrha and Jaune who agreed with him.

“Yeah, yeah.” Jaune said as he began to roll up his sleeping bag, but they were interrupted by sounds of Qrow coughing violently. This was enough to wake up Nora and Ruby who upon hearing Qrow’s coughing grow worse rushed to his side.  A deep purple stain was showing on Qrow’s bandage, pulling away his hand, he sees a purple stain covering it.

“Well,” Qrow said as he looked at Ruby seeing a bit of her mother in her, “That’s unfortunate...” With those words Qrow passes out. 


	7. Decisions and Bad Timing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in the chapter, I was preparing for a trip to Memphis for work, but I had some health issues and had to deal with that, but anyway I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Will say I went all out with the drama for the chapter since well it's fun to me.

The weather looked just as dower as the situation that Team RRNNJ found themselves in, holding a half-dead and delirious Qrow Branwen on a makeshift stretcher, Ruby and Jaune were holding him and trying to keep him stable on the stretcher. Leading the look for any place that might be able to help the older huntsman was Lie Ren, following behind them was Nora and Pyrrha

        “Hold on Uncle Qrow.” Ruby said to her uncle as he talked and babbled in his sleep.

        “Tai…she’s not coming…Tai.” He said Ruby unsure what he was talking about in terms of her father, she ignored this and focused on keeping the stretcher stable.

        “He’s getting worse.” Jaune said as Qrow coughed a bit more, some purple spittle coming out as he did so. Ruby looked to Ren who was leading them while she and Jaune handed Qrow and spoke up.

        “How much further?” Ruby asked hoping to get some form of good news, just anything to lessen her worry about her uncle.

        “We’ve got to be getting close.” Nora said a bit unsure of how far they were from their destination or really any place that might be of some help, Ren turned to them and then back to the path ahead.

        “Without a map, there’s no way of knowing.” Ren said as he looked, “But I feel like we’re close to something.” Looking ahead, Ren notices a sign post holstering his weapons, he rushed forward

        “What is it?” Ruby asked as they speed up to catch up to Ren, the sign was on a forked road, with directions pointing to Higanbana, Kuchinashi, Mistral and Kuroyuri which was crossed ou.

        “Hey, hey! Mistral were on the right path!” Nora said as she looked at the sign and saw Kuroyuri on it, turning to Ren she let out a small Oh, giving him a knowing look.

        “Does it say how close?” Ruby asked Ren shook his head.

        “No, and it looks like the path takes us up the mountains.” Ren said in slight annoyance rare for him. Setting Qrow down momentarily the group tried to think of something.

        “Guys, I don’t know if all of us can make that climb.” Jaune said in reference to Qrow and Pyrrha, who were in no condition to brave a climb up a mountain. Ruby took a glance at her uncle and then rushed to the post looking for any place that might be able to help them.

        “Okay, well what about this place.” Ruby said as she pointed to Kuroyuri, “Kuro…Kuroyuri, can we get help there?” Ruby asked hoping that this would be their saving grace. Her idea was shot down, by Ren.

        “That village was destroyed years ago.” He said darkly, Ruby let out an annoyed groan.

        “But if it takes us around the mountains, it’s the best bet we’ve got.” Jaune said seeing the only good side of this whole situation, they were in a loss, loss; with no obvious good path to take. Ren seemed to not take this suggestion well since his voice changed when he spoke up.

        “It will take to long.” Ren said when Ruby got an idea that might help them.

        “The town would have had a doctor, right? Maybe we could scavenge for medicine.” Ruby said hoping that this might be their saving grace, even if it was a small glimmer of hope.

        “We’re not going to find anything!” Ren said as he lowered his head looking downcast much like the sky, “We just have to press on!” Everyone surprised by Ren’s shouting, his normally stoic demeanor cracking just a bit. Pyrrha was the one to speak up.

        “Ren, why are you acting li-” She was cut off by Nora who thought up an idea of her own.

        “We can split up.” Nora said in desperation hoping this would help them somehow. The group was baffled by this idea until Nora explained it further, “Ren and I can cut through the mountains, while you, Ruby and Pyrrha take Qrow through the village.” Nora said hoping this would help.

        “No, we’re supposed to stick together! We keep each other safe!” Jaune said angry at the idea of splitting themselves up. Nora annoyed spoke back.

        “We don’t have time for safe!” Nora shouted back, just as angry as Jaune “If we make it to Mistral, we’ll bring back help, if we don’t at least we have a better view of the land up there, see if we can find somewhere else to go.” Nora said explaining her logic. It takes a moment for the group to decide, their stagnation only stopped when Qrow coughs up again, reminding them of the pressing matter at hand. With a heavy sigh Jaune agrees.

        “Ok,” Jaune says as he brings Ren and Nora into a hug, “Just take care of each other.” Jaune says as he releases the two from the hug.

        “We always have.” Nora said as she smiled. Picking Qrow back up, Pyrrha, Jaune and Ruby make their way down the path to Kuroyuri while Nora and Ren go down the path to the mountains. As they walk worry spreads through Jaune’s face, only being comforted by Pyrrha’s hand on his shoulder.

        “They’re gonna be fine Jaune.” Pyrrha said reassuringly, this seem to not have as much effect as she would like though.

        “You don’t know that.” Jaune said still worrying about his friends. The path to Kuroyuri was not a long one, only taking half an hour to make it to the abandoned village, the village had an air of unease to it. As if death permeated the very air they breathed.

        “Oh, man.” Jaune said as he looked around the village.

        “Come on.” Ruby said as the three moved forward hoping to find a pharmacy or something that might give them some help for Qrow. Passing many buildings not sure which one might be the one that would help them.

        “Any of these places look like a pharmacy?” Ruby asked, as they passed another building with no markings or anything to indicate what it was before it’s abandoned and destroyed state.

“Honestly, it’s hard to tell.” Jaune said in defeat as they continued to look.

“Ren really didn’t want to come here, did he?” Ruby asked as they walked.

“Didn’t seem so.” Pyrrha responded wincing a bit, not sure why she was feeling some slight pains. She ignored this hoping they would pass soon.

“Do you guys know why?” Ruby asked the two, they were Ren and Nora’s friends and knew more about them than anyone else.

“I think I have a pretty good idea.” Jaune responded as they pressed forward. They eventually find a cherry blossom tree and lay Qrow up against it and Ruby and Jaune split up leaving Qrow and Pyrrha behind as they search for any medicine. While the two searched, Pyrrha’s pains grew more server, she then looked around her lower half and let out a groan.

“No-not now.” Pyrrha groaned as she saw the puddle of water forming around her, of all the times for this to happen. Clutching her abdomen, she hoped that the two would return soon. She could sense something very, very evil lurking around. Inside the village after a few minutes of intense searching, Ruby and Jaune meet back up, the two looking defeated as they see the other empty handed.

“Nothing.” Jaune said in annoyance. Ruby looks off to where they left her uncle and frowns.

“We should get back to Qrow.” Ruby said as the walked off to find Qrow where they left him, as they walked a far-off creature lets out a cry, Jaune instinctively reaching for his sword. Ruby reassuring him

“It’s far off.” Ruby said still slightly tense, at whatever the creature was that let out the noise.

“I know, but Ren and Nora are still out there.” Jaune said as they walked, Ruby looked downwards before looking at Jaune.

“I’m sorry.” Ruby said softly the guilt of having dragged her friends into this whole mess keeping her from looking Jaune in the face when he tuned to face her.

“Huh?” Jaune said not sure why Ruby would be apologizing.

“This is all my fault, I should have never dragged you guys into this.”  Ruby said still feeling guilty.

“You didn’t drag us in, we wanted to come.” Jaune said reassuring Ruby about Team JNPR’s decision to come with her.

“But you didn’t know about Tyrian, abou-” Ruby said stammering a bit, Jaune cut her off to give her some more reassurance.

“Ruby…we lost, we lost Beacon, and Penny, and your team, and in a way your sister.” Jaune said remembering the things they lost during the fall of beacon. “But you’re still here, despite everything you’ve lost, everything you could still lose, you chose to come out here.” Jaune said turning to him.

“Because you felt like you cold make a difference.” Jaune said Ruby feeling slightly better, “You didn’t drag us along, you gave us the courage to follow you.” Jaune said as he puts a hand on her shoulder, she smiled and the two made their way to Qrow and Pyrrha. The two expected to see a still out of it Qrow, what they didn’t expect to find was Pyrrha letting out pained groans as she clutched her abdomen.

“Pyrrha! What’s wrong?!” Jaune shouted as he rushed to his girlfriend’s side. Pyrrha gripped his hand, and let out a pained mewl as she groaned out a response.

“I-it’s time.” Pyrrha said to Jaune as she let out another groan, Jaune was unsure what she meant until he saw the puddle of water around her and knew immediately what was happening. Before he could do anything the cry from earlier comes out, this time louder and clearer, whatever that creature was, was now closer to their position. Jaune reluctantly turned away from Pyrrha and drew his sword, his paternal instincts kicking in to not only protect her, but their soon to be born child.  Looking around the two are surprised by the appearance of Ren and Nora, the former relieved that the two were still around, this was short lived as Ren collapsed to his knees.

“No…” Was all Ren could keep muttering as the demented clopping of hooves was heard in the background, looking all around them they tried to pinpoint where it was coming from until they saw it, a Grimm that was as twisted as it’s cry implied, a horse with a demented imp as it’s rider, fused into one, a black smog emanated from the horse's nostrils, it’s body covered in arrows, swords and other weapons indicating the many battles that it weathered. The creatures heed twisted in an unnatural and obscene fashion, it then lets out a gasp of that sent shivers down the spines of everyone; the Nuckelavee had found its next prey.


	8. New Beginnings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this will be the last chapter for a while as I work out a new RWBY fic, that probably won't come out for a while, but I thought to end on a good note before the hiatus started, so enjoy and do watch for the new fic I'm working on that should be done in a few days to a couple of weeks give or take some days.

The dust bellowed as the majority of Team RRNNJ were thrown clear or in the case of a few running away from the Grimm that had arrived in the destroyed village. When the dust finally settled standing in the middle of the courtyard, the rider limp, the half horse, half imp Grimm let out another demonic cry before turning in the most unnatural way towards the two most defenseless members of their group: Qrow and Pyrrha. Seeing this Jaune and Ruby turned and ran towards the two hoping to get to them before the Grimm’s attack made any sort of connection. With Ruby hoisting Qrow on her shoulders and Jaune cradling Pyrrha in his arms the two turned to the charging Nuckelavee, unable to move quick enough, but before it made contact as if it couldn’t see them the Grimm confused began looking around for its intended targets.

“Just get them to safety!” Ren cried out as, knocking Jaune and Ruby out of their slight confusion, the two took head of their friend’s advice as Nora fired upon the Grimm with some homing grenades and ran to find a place that the Nuckelavee, couldn’t easily find them. All the while Ren and Nora were trying to fight this thing off as best they could. Gently putting the two down in an alleyway Ruby ran off to fight the Nuckelavee with Ren and Nora, while Jaune lingered for a few seconds, looking at his girlfriend and Qrow.

“Be…Careful.” Pyrrha pained out as she felt another contraction hit her, Jaune nodded and ran off to fight the beast with the rest of his friends. Ruby launched herself in the air intent on doing an aerial attack, when she was brought down by the Grimm’s elongated claw and smashed into the cobblestone ground, upsetting some of it and making a rather large dent. Nora tried to do a forward attack when the Grimm was distracted but ran into the same problem and was punched clear of the area.

Before it could finish them off it let out an annoyed whine as Ren fired Stormflower into the Grimm’s back, circling around the Grimm to give his friends some time to recover. When the Grimm stretched its arms and grabbed ahold of Ren’s hands preventing him from firing any more.  This is when Jaune figured the best way to attack the Grimm’s shouting out he gave the team his idea.

“Guys! Keep moving go in a circle!”  Jaune yelled as he began to implement his plan, while this was happening Nora fired off another round of homing grenades, distracting it enough to get Ren loose, he then along with Ruby, Nora and Jaune began circling the Grimm keeping it from getting a soled hit on them, with Jaune trying to hit one of its legs with Crocea Mors, but to no effect. The Grimm let out an indigent bray and kicked Jaune with it’s back legs sending him nearly flying into Ruby. Getting up Jaune grimaced as he placed his sword into its sheath/shield.

“What are you doing?” Ruby asked confused why Jaune would be doing that, her question was immediately answered when Crocea Mors’s shield became integrated into the weapon, making it heavier and more powerful, Jaune ran forwards leaving a smiling Ruby as she began firing upon the Nuckelavee Allowing Jaune to land a solid blow on the Grimm causing it some pain as it did.  The Grimm let out another pained whine as it began spinning it’s entire body hitting the entire team with it’s elongated arms.

It then began to spasm and contort in an unnatural fashion before extending the spins on its back, and letting out a cry that just from hearing caused Ruby and Jaune pain, Meanwhile Ren and Nora, unaffected, Ren Seeing this as an opportunity to attack the Grimm jumped on a tree and began shooting it again. When this got he Grimm’s attention Ren tried to Jump away from it, but was caught in midair and pinned to a nearby tower.

“Ruby!” Nora yelled as Ruby nodded, Nora then jumped onto Crescent Rose and with a twist and a shot from the HCSRC Nora was sent flying just in time to prevent the Grimm from hitting Ren but pinning her to the wall with the only thing keeping her from falling was her tight grip on Magnhild.  This was a relief to Ren as he smiled up at Nora. Who then chastised him for looking up her skirt, much to the raven-haired boy’s embarrassment. This small bit of brevity was short lived as the Nuckelavee contorted t’s body again and began to widely bash Nora who was still holding onto Magnhild into the ground before sending her flying her Aura now depleted.  Seeing this and filled with rage, Ren stabbed Stormflower’s blades into the Nuckelavee’s arm and began shooting it. Seeing this Jaune sliced at the Grimm’s hind leg making it release Ren from its tight grip on the tower.

Ren, rushing forwards a if possessed started attacking the Grimm only to be hit in the face, not stopping for a second, Ren tried again, just as the Grimm freed its other hand from ground and gripped Ren’s leg sending him flying and throwing him right next to Nora; his Aura depleted just like Nora’s. Gearing up for another attack Nora and Ren jumped under a nearby building, just in time for Jaune to stop the Grimm’s front hooves from going any further. 

Jaune tried his best to help Ruby as they fought the Nuckelavee keeping Ren and Nora safe until they got from under the house. When they finally emerged the two ran up to their friends and turned to them, worried looks on their faces.  The Grimm Circling, looking at them with demented eyes. This thing was running them ragged, and they needed it dead: now.

“Ren, Jaune and I can take care of it’s arms.”  Ruby said determined to end this fight once and for all.

“I’ll take care of the horse.” Nora said just as determined as Ruby was and finally with his friends resolve to strengthen him, ready to kill the one true demon of his past Ren spoke up.

“I’ll take care of the rest.” With their new Plan in motion, Nora made it up to the highest tower she could find, waiting for her friends to pin the Grimm so she could do her part of the plan. Meanwhile Ruby began shooting at the Grimm keeping it from attacking Nora until it was time to attack the horse.  Jumping from house to house, as it tried to hit the speeding Ruby, with one jump, pinning one of its arms with her scythe, not even paying attention to the knife that Ren imbedded into the horse's side.

Jaune holding up his sword waited for the Grimm to notice him, when it did, it tried attacking him, only to have its final arm pinned down by Ren using Jaune’s shield.

“Now!” Ren yelled out as Jaune stuck his sword into Grimm’s other arm, embedding it deep into the ground, “Nora!” Ren yelled to his teammate at the top of the tower, who with a spin and flourish brought her hammer down hard upon the horse’s head. Causing it to let out another intense cry of pain. Ready to deliver the final blow, Ren grabbed the knife from the horse’s body, and started it dead in its eyes. Not even phased when the Grimm let out a cry of rage directly in his face. Anger and determination flowing through his mind, Ren severed the right arm of the Grimm sending it into the throws of pain as it tried to continue to free itself. Ren not missing a beat gripped the Grimm’s left arm and severed it as well. Causing it even more pain as it spasmed and contorted anguish. With a slash to the chest of the Grimm as it neared the last bits of its own wretched life,

“For myself!” Ren said as he decapitated the Grimm sending the now limp body to fall on the horse as it disappeared into a cloud of smoke, indicating it was finally dead. Exhausted and drained both physically and emotionally Ren let out a tired breath before he was tackled in excitement by Nora who hugged him on the ground. Smiling at the two Jaune then heard a cry of pain remembered why they were fighting the Grimm he alongside Ruby rushed to Pyrrha and Qrow who were still fine, they then heard in the distance the sound of airships fast approaching. Jaune holding Pyrrha tightly as he tried to comfort her they alongside Qrow were loaded onto the airships.

“How did you find us out here?” Jaune asked as he tended to Pyrrha as carefully as he could, this whole labor thing was still new to him.

“We were on patrol and saw the smoke, no one’s been out here for years, thought something might be wrong.” The man answered as the ship flew to Mistral and to their salvation, for the time.

“What if we don’t make it in time?” Ruby said concerned for Qrow, Jaune looked out and saw the city that was Mistral in the distance.

“Ruby.” Jaune said as Ruby saw the city, she gripped her uncles hand tightly as tears nearly welled in her eyes.

“We made it uncle Qrow.” Ruby said as the flew to Mistral, landing and taking Qrow and Pyrrha to the nearest hospital. Later that day, Jaune was standing besides his girlfriend tears in his eyes as he looked at his newborn daughter. Around him were his friends. In a world full of so much loss and sadness, today was the happiest day of his life.

“We, we did it Jaune our baby girl.” Pyrrha said tired but, happy as the child stirred in it’s sleep a weak smile formed on her face. She was just as happy as Jaune this day, and it showed.

“What should we name her?” Jaune asked Pyrrha as the two thought up names for a moment then an idea came into Pyrrha’s mind.

“Arwen, Arwen Arc.” Pyrrha said as she looked at her newborn child and smiled again. Their daughter Arwen had arrived, she was small, rather premature but, she was their lovely child and Jaune and Pyrrha were the happiest they could be, and while things could be better, they were happy even if for a small time.


	9. Revelations and Disappointments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is probably the longest chapter I've worked on for anything, at like 3433 words, the only thing that can beat it is a full fledged novel I'm working on. Well I'm off hiatus and with that we start Volume 5 in the story, I hope you guys like it.

“The City of Mistral.” Qrow Branwen said in a monotone voice, just as Nora shouted in annoyance.

        “Well it’s about time!” Team RRNNJ were walking through a tunnel, the sides illuminated by torches and lanterns, “Whose idea was it to walk again?” Nora asked in a mocking tone at her teammates.

        “Well, we did face many obstacles.” Ren said as he started to recount the things that had impeded them, “Broken Airships, destroyed settlements…” With Jaune adding the last one that was of great note.

        “Oh, and you know, all the people and monsters trying to murder us.” Jaune said in a grating tone, this made Pyrrha and Nora laugh a bit.

        “We were fine, only one of us almost died.” Ruby said looking at Qrow who balked at the comment.

        “Well it could have been worse, not many women go into labor during a Grimm attack.” Pyrrha said mentioning her newborn daughter who was hopefully sleeping soundly at the house that Team RRNNJ were staying in for the time being.  Jaune’s eyes lit up a bit at the mention of their daughter.

        “Yeah, well you two are a special case.” Qrow said as they continued down the tunnel.

        “So, how much further to Haven Academy?” Jaune asked wondering how long they’d be going through this tunnel. They were nearing a pair of double doors.

        “Almost there but, I thought I’d show you kids the scenic route.” Qrow said as he reached the doors and he pried them open, revealing a beautiful vista of a lush waterfall and the city below. They could make out the market that made up a good portion of the city, with people selling talking and doing all manor of business there.

        “WOW!” Ruby said in awe at the beauty of the area, “This is AWESOME!!”  Ruby said as she noticed a weapons stall, always the eye for them.

        “Oh my gosh, look at all those weapons!” Ruby said as she noticed some armaments she’d never seen before.

        “Vendors here’ll sell you just about anything…whether they should or not.” Qrow said as he eyed a rather shady deal being made near a stall.

        “They really made the most of these mountains” Jaune noted as he looked around and spotted a jewelry stall that he’d have to visit later.

        “Every inch. Stay away from the lower levels, the higher you go, the nicer it gets.” Qrow said thinking of a few bad run-ins he had many years ago.

        “And we are going up!” Nora said pointing upwards to their destination, Haven Academy. Which was at the top of the mountains that made up Mistral.  The elevator ride was a short one, taking only about ten minutes, walking through the courtyard  though Ruby almost shed a tear, but was comforted by Jaune.

        “We made it.” She said as they ventured forward into the academy. But as the traversed the halls they found something…odd, the entire school was empty, no students, no staff, not a soul was in the whole campus.

        “Hello!” Ruby loudly yelled trying to see if anyone was in the building. To no success.

        “Maybe try louder?” Nora said unsure what will help them in finding anyone in the school.

        “There, doesn’t seem to be anyone here.” Ren said pointing out the obvious.

        “Well, I guess school isn’t really in session right now, maybe that’s it?” Jaune asked looking at his team who shrugged their shoulders. Meanwhile Qrow was having a bad feeling,

        “No, this isn’t right.” Qrow said as he rushed on ahead, leaving behind Team RRNNJ who soon followed suit. They stopped at a pair of double doors, with Qrow drawing his sword.

        “Get ready, there could be trouble.” Qrow said, RRNNJ nodded and pulled out their weapons, Qrow then kicked the door open, and on the other side was a man of advanced age his hands up in the air as he let out a scream of terror, with Team RRNNJ, well Ruby, Nora and Jaune scream while Ren simply stares at the man and Pyrrha shakes her head. Stopping for a moment his foot still raised in the air Qrow fell on his back, while the older man faints. Seeing this display the teens lowered their weapons.

        “Uh, Professor Lionheart?” Ruby asked, slightly confused as to what just happened, and who this man was. The older man sat up and spoke.

        “Qrow! For crying out loud, you nearly scared me half to death.” Lionheart said as Qrow got up and dusted himself off. Qrow narrowed his eyes and with an annoyed tone retorted

        “Me, why weren’t you waiting for us at the entrance?”  Qrow asked, confused Lionheart pulled out a pocket watch from his vest pocket and looked at it.

        “Oh! Right, I guess time must have slipped away from me.” Lionheart said as he rose from the floor and steadied his nerves.

        “Your joking?” Qrow said as he gave Lionheart a wry look.

        “Where is everyone?” Nora asked, getting Lionheart’s attention at the five students standing behind Qrow.

        “Ah, you must be the students Qrow mentioned.” Lionheart says as he gets a good look at the five.

        “Yes, sir, Ruby Rose.” Ruby said giving a salute.

        “Jaune Arc.” Jaune says curtly.

        “Pyrrha Nikos.” Pyrrha said as she nodded.

        “Nora Valkyrie.” Nora said as she took up a rather stern pose.

        “Lie Ren.” Ren said as he bowed in respect. Lionheart nodded as he introduced himself.

        “A Pleasure to meet you all, Leodore Lionheart, at your service.” Leo says as he dusts himself off, “I’m afraid most of my staff is currently away until classes resume, but-” He was cut off by Qrow who leaned towards him in slight anger.

        “What? Leo, you can’t be serious who’s guarding the Relic?”  Qrow asked the mention of the Relic made Leo nearly jump,

        “Qrow, the children!” Leo said trying to not mention anything that the teens shouldn’t be privy to.

        “Already know,, I filled them in, what do you mean the staff is away?” Qrow asked in anger at this whole situation, Leo was still trying to digest that Qrow had already told them about the relics and anything in-between.

        “You…filled them in?” Leo asked still trying to let things sink in.

        “Soo, is this not going at all like anyone thought it would?” Nora said as she leaned next to Ruby and spoke, surprised at how…rather unprofessional this whole thing has been so far.  Sighing, Leo invited the group into his office, with Ruby and Jaune deciding to stand while Nora, Pyrrha and Ren took a seat on the sofa while Qrow stood before Leo at his desk.

        “I have to say, Qrow this is reckless even for you.” Lionheart said chastising Qrow for is rathe brash decision to inform the students of the whole situation and bring them here with said knowledge.

        “No, Reckless is leaving one of the Relics completely unguarded, it’s not checking in with Oz for ages!” Qrow said in anger at the accusation that Leo was laying before him.

        “There was nothing to check in about, before the Fall of Beacon!”  Leo said as he rose from his seat and looked Qrow dead in the eyes, “But since that day, Mistral has been in chaos.” Leo said his fists clenched in anger.

        “Vale wasn’t the only Kingdom to suffer that night.”  Leo said leaning in closer to Qrow, as Team RRNNJ watched this argument unfold. “Everyone was watching, every house in every kingdom saw that poor girl ripped to pieces.” A pang of guilt hit Pyrrha remembering her part in Penny’s death, while Ruby looked away in sadness. This was enough to gain Jaune’s ire as he grimaced at Lionheart.

        “Saw monsters crawling over the city, Atlesian Knights attacking citizens,” Then Leo’s voice went cold, “And then nothing, you could feel the dread, that negativity, you can imagine what it was like when the Grimm came for us.” Lionheart said as he walked towards the window looking out to Mistral and frowning.

        “Mistral’s territory is the widest reaching in the world, you know that, and it makes it infinitely harder to protect…we lost so many great Huntsmen, teachers from this very institute, and it’s only gotten worse.”  Leo said as he leaned into the windowsill.

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked trying to figure out what could be worse.

“We may have dealt with the Grimm, but Mistral’s council’s still at odds with representatives from Atlas, it was the dust embargo, now it’s closing its borders.  Lionheart turned to look at Qrow again, “I’m not sure what happened to James in Vale, but it seems to have only worsened some of his more…unfortunate tendencies.” Letting out a defeated sigh, Leo then added one last bit of information

“And on top of everything, we still don’t know where the Spring Maiden is.” Leo said in defeat, as he looked down with sadness.

“All the more reason we need the Huntsman and Huntresses here!” Qrow said in anger trying to show Leo that his way of thinking was wrong in this situation. At this point Ruby decided to interject and try to stem the tide of this argument before it got too heated.

“Okay, okay, thins are bad but we can figure this out, why is the Spring Maiden so important?” Ruby asked trying to get some idea for the importance of the Spring Maiden, Lionheart looked at Qrow surprised.

“I thought you filled them in.” Leo said in surprise at the rather important piece of information the teens were missing.

“Mostly filled them in…Look there’s a lot to cover okay? I quit teaching for a reason.” Qrow said as he got his flask from his shirt and took a swig of whatever booze he kept in there. Sitting back down now slightly calmer than he was when the argument started Leo began to explain the importance of the Maidens in their whole plan.

“The four Maidens each have the power to perform feats of magic, and they are the only ones capable of reaching the Relics.” Leo said surprising the group at this revelation.

“What?” Jaune asked looking at Pyrrha for confirmation, but she seemed to be in the dark just as much as them.

“The Relics are each locked inside a chamber that can only be opened by a specific Maiden,” Qrow said as he as he began to recount the different Relics and their respective Maidens, “Summer for Destruction, Fall for Choice and Spring for Knowledge, Spring is the problem.” Qrow said taking another swig of his drink.

“What happened to her?” Ren asked wondering what happened to the Spring Maiden.

“She was determined, at first, when she inherited her powers, but the weight of responsibility proved to be too much for the child,” Leo said as he thought of the day of the Spring maidens disappearance “She... ran. Abandoned her training, everyone. That was over a decade ago. There's no telling where she could be now. Qrow sighed as he thought of where the Maiden was since his latest info gathering.

“I…know. At least…I have a pretty good idea.” Qrow said making Leo rise from his seat again in excitement at this sudden good news.

“Are you serious!?” Leo asked, Qrow rolled his eyes.

“What are you talking about? This is incredible news!” Leo said as  he took ahold of Qrow shoulders, “After all these years! Where?!” Leo asked excited to finally know the location of the Spring Maiden. Qrow shoved Leo’s hand off his shoulders and started speaking.

“I did some digging around. Looks like, after Spring ran away, she was picked up by bandits, specifically the Branwen tribe.” Qrow said making Leo frown since he knew exactly who Qrow was talking about

“Raven.” Leo said in slight malice, the others look around having heard of that name before from Yang.

“Yang’s mom” Jaune asked Qrow nodded and the others glanced at one another again, Qrow meanwhile placed his scroll on Lionheart’s desk and a holographic projection of a map popped up. Zooming in, the map then pointed to an area.

“That's about where they've set up their main camp.” Qrow said pointing to the map, “Where they fall back after raids and scouting missions, Raven’s managed to gain a lot of followers since she returned to the tribe, and I’m sure the Spring maiden showed up, it only made things easier.”

“Well, Qrow, I've got to hand it to you. With these coordinates, we can mount a retrieval force and head out in a few weeks.” Leo said as he as he patted Qrow on the back and walks over to his computer, Qrow on the other hand was not all for waiting for weeks to go after Raven.

“A few weeks?” Qrow asked while Leo copied the files on the scroll before disconnecting Qrow’s scroll

“That’s right.” Leo said as he walked back behind his desk and sat down.

“Leo, maybe you didn't hear me. My sister has the Spring Maiden, and I know where she is,” Qrow said as he put his hands on Leo’s desk, “WE need to go as soon as possible!” Qrow said as he knocked several books off the desk much to Leo’s annoyance.

“And perhaps you didn’t hear me, this Kingdom is in shambles ‘as soon as possible’ does not mean tomorrow.” Leo said trying to keep his temper in check, “It means, as soon as I can convince the council that I need Huntsmen more than they do. Unfortunately, bandit tribes aren't very high on their list of priorities when the threat of war is just on the horizon.” Leo said explaining what looks he’d have to go through to get anything like what they needed going.

“Then dman the council, we’ll do it ourselves. You and I are trained Huntsman, and these kids aren’t exactly pushovers.” This got Nora’s attention sh she jumped up from her seat while Ruby fistpumps

“Yeah!” Nora said in excitement at going on another mission. Ren was less than giddy about this and spoke up.

“Perhaps there’s a more…peaceful way to approach this?” Ren asked hoping to avoid any more fights for the time being.

“One that doesn’t take me away from my child perhaps?” Pyrrha said hoping that they didn’t have to do something that would have to force her to leave her newborn behind, with Jaune nodding in agreement.

“We need to get Spring as far away from here as possible. And Raven isn't going to give up her most prized possession without a fight.” Qrow said determined to get this done as soon as possible.

“Unfortunately, you and your sister are evenly matched. And I'm not the fighter I used to be. No offense, but these students and I can't take on an entire bandit tribe and a Maiden that's no doubt had years to hone her skills.” Lionheart said as he let out another annoyed sigh, “We need to be positive we can apprehend Spring, because if we fail Raven and her tribe will scatter. And we'll be lost. We get one shot at this. And it needs to be perfect.” Lionheart said looking Qrow dead in the eyes, the two waited for a few seconds before Qrow let out a sigh of defeat.

“You know Oz wouldn’t be happy with any of this if he were here.” Qrow said mentioning Ozpin and how he would have probably felt about this whole ordeal.

“Perhaps you’re right but, he’s not. I’m doing the best I can.” Leo said trying to reassure Qrow.

“There has to be something we can do.” Ruby said trying not to sound as deflated as she was from hearing they couldn’t help at the moment. Then an idea flashed n Jaune’s mind.

“What about Cinder? She came with Emerald and Mercury rom Haven; do you have anything on them?” Jaune asked the mention of the woman who nearly killed her sent shivers down Pyrrha’s spine, Jaune noticed this and held her hand, rubbing gentle circles on her palms to calm her down.

“We pulled their files after the Fall of Beacon. Nothing but lies and forgeries.” Leo said much to Jaune’s anger, still not close to finding out about the woman who nearly killed his love.

        “Well, I can’t say this has been a warm reunion, Leo.” Qrow says with a hint of bitterness to his voice, more than normal anyway.

“I’m sorry. I know you’ve all traveled a long way, but I will do anything I can to help.” Leo said trying to reassure the teens who had looks of defeat on their faces.

        “Sure, we’ll stay in the city for the time being.” Qrow said as he held up his scroll, “Local comms are still up, keep in touch.” Qrow said as he walked away asking for the teens to follow him. Before leaving Ruby turned to Lionheart and spoke.

        “It was nice meeting you professor.” Ruby said with a weak smile.

        “Likewise.” Lionheart said as Ruby left closing the door behind them. In the hallway of Haven Academy, Qrow was walking with a downcast look while the others had unsure glances amongst themselves

        “So, what do we do now?” Nora asked, Qrow sighed and turned to the five.

        “You five head back to the house, I need a drink.” Qrow said leaving behind Team RRNNJ each with looks of concern on their faces. But they headed Qrow’s orders and returned back to the house.

        “Well that was a waste of time.” Jaune said as he flopped down onto the sofa. Annoyed at the lack of progress they’ve had in the day.

        “We couldn’t even get any info on…her.” Pyrrha said as she went to She and Jaune’s  room and retrieved their daughter who was still sleeping soundly. Jaune followed her and the two looked down at their bundle of joy.

        “Come on dear, time for food.” Pyrrha said as she picked up the baby who woke up to her mother’s voice, yawning Pyrrha brought out one of her breasts so the child could suckle from her.  Walking back to the Living room, the group talked for a while until Arwen fell asleep again, allowing Pyrrha to put her back to her crib. The rest of the teens were relaxing while Ruby was in her room enjoying some light reading. When the heard a knock on the door.

        Not taking any chances Jaune quickly rose from the sofa and slowly made his way to the door, and with caution he opened it, when he opened it he saw a kid, probably younger than Ruby. He turned to Nora and Ren who shrugged their shoulders.

        “Can I help you?” Jaune asked unsure who this kid was.

        “Um, yeah, is there a Ruby Rose here?” The kid asked causing Ren, Nora and Pyrrha to get out of their chairs and look at the kid with questioning eyes.

        “Why?” Nora asked glaring at the kid. Ren and Pyrrha doing the same,

        “Well…” The kid started before he was interrupted by a very, very heavily drunk Qrow coming up and grabbing him much to the young boy’s surprise, “I think her uncle can use some help.”

        “I found him!” Qrow said as he stumbled into the house and collapsed onto the sofa, laughing a bit, “I found him!” Qrow said proud of himself.  This noise was enough to interrupt Ruby who walked out of her room.

        “What is going on out there?! Can’t a girl read her comics in peace?” Ruby asked before seeing what the cause of the noise was, she then facepalmed and sighed at her drunk uncle, “Uncle Qrow, did you get drunk again?” Ruby asked knowing full well what the answer was.

        “Maybe.” Qrow said drunkenly. The kid walked in and turned to Ruby.

        “You have silver eyes.” The kid said much to The other four’s confusion, while Qrow laughed on the sofa.

        “Who are you?” Ruby asked the boy who looked down in embarrassment.

        “Well my name is Oscar Pine...” Oscar stated while in the background Qrow spoke up.

        “Wait for it!” Qrow said as the Oscar spoke up again, ignoring is comment completely.

        “But you may know me better as Professor Ozpin.” The group looked on amazement or in Nora’s case disbelief, then Qrow shouted

        “I did it!” and fell of the sofa, this noise being enough to wake up Arwen again who began to cry off in the distance. Pyrrha pinched the bridge of her nose while Jaune looked down in defeat. This was going to be a long day.


	10. Hormones and Mistakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in-between updates, but becoming a teacher is hard, plus I've been looking for a job so yeah not a fun time. This is also probably the most explicit this story will get without actually showing any actual sex (though if you guys would want a side thing of that I'd be happy to oblige.)

The first time Pyrrha and Jaune ever became…intimate in any capacity ,the two were still in Patch with the rest of Team JNPR. They had holed up in a local inn near the Rose-Xiao Long family home.  The two were sitting in their room, well it wasn’t their room Jaune and Ren shared a room and Nora and Pyrrha shared a room and they were hanging out in Jaune and Ren’s room, while those two were out doing…whatever Nora did when she dragged Ren off to do something and would probably not be back for a while.

“So…um…” Jaune said nervously he wanted to bring up something that had been nagging him in the back of his mind, before Pyrrha had went off the confront Cinder she had kissed him, and while they’d been around each other almost daily, they never really had any time to privately discuss that. Now that Pyrrha and him were alone he felt this was the best time to do so, too bad he was to nervous to do so.

“Yes Jaune?” Pyrrha asked trying to figure out what he wanted to discuss, Jaune took a deep breath and spoke up again, trying to make sure his nerves didn’t get the better of him, a battle easier said than done.

“We-well, do you remember what you did before you went to fight Cinder?” Jaune asked nervously, he then saw Pyrrha’s face turn bright red, and she covered her face in embarrassment.

“Did I say something wrong?!” Jaune asked hoping he didn’t offend her, he was surprised when instead of an answer she pinned him to the bed. He was surprised at first, Pyrrha was not know for doing anything like this, so it came as a bit of a huge surprise to Jaune

“Yes, Jaune I do remember the kiss.” Pyrrha said in a rather husky tone, “I remember it as clearly as the fight with Cinder.” Pyrrha said as she brought her lips to his much to his surprise, but he didn’t object as his hands found their way around her waist.

“Pyrrha do you really wanna go th-” Before Jaune could finish his question the door burst open and an extremely excited Nora came through which made Jaune and Pyrrha separate as quickly as possible looking as embarrassed as possible.

“Hey guys were back…what’s wrong?” Nora asked seeing the two’s fire dust red faces, the two didn’t look each other in the face making Nora more concerned, “Did you two get into a fight or something?”  Nora asked the two shook their heads, and this made Nora raise an eyebrow in question, before she decided to drop it. And tell them about their shopping trip into Patch, and how they ran into Ruby and Yang’s dad. Later that night the two had their first talk about their relationship and became boyfriend and girlfriend.

The next time they became intimate it was during the early months of their travels to help Ruby, they were traveling through some of the forests of Anima, by this point the two had revealed to their friends that they were in a relationship and were constantly being teased about it to a degree. While the others were setting up camp, they decided to sneak off to enjoy some time alone.  Finding an area of the forest that was relatively clear the two sat there talking holding hands, then hand holding turned to gentle strokes of the cheek, which turned to gentle kisses and then one after the other the two found themselves having their first time together, it was as awkward as two teens inexperienced in this kind of endeavor could be, it was brief, but neither would trade it for any other experience in the world. When they returned back to camp, with disheveled hair, slightly askew clothing and in Pyrrha’s case covered in a fare share of marks from Jaune. Ren didn’t say anything wishing to spare the young couple any further embarrassment, Ruby simply ignored it as none of her business what her two friends did in their time away from the group, and then there was Nora. Nora had the largest smile on her face and that night during dinner she would not let the two live it down.

“So, how was he huh Pyrrha?” Nora asked elbowing Pyrrha playfully much to Jaune and hers utter embarrassment, “Was he romantic or did he-” She was cut off by Ren who thankfully put an end to her embarrassing questions much to the great relief of the two.  The two didn’t try anything like that for another few months, and the next time they did they made extra care to not look like they’d just spent the better part of an hour having sex.

The last time they had sex was also the one that had the most consequences, the two in hindsight were rather dumb when it came to safe sex and it was a wonder that Pyrrha didn’t get pregnant sooner, but their luck had run out after a visit to a village allowed them to stay at an inn.  While the event was normal, and the two didn’t think much of it when they were done the next few weeks later Pyrrha was not in the best of conditions, at first the group thought it might have been something in the food they ate a while back ago.  But when they stopped into town, to visit a local doctor they were rather surprised to hear the news; especially Jaune and Pyrrha.

Sitting in the inn they were staying in that night the five or rather three out of the five couldn’t stop congratulating the young couple on the surprise development, and while the two were happy that their friends were happy for them, that night Pyrrha and Jaune were in their room and they were to say the least; freaking out.

“How the heck could we be so stupid!” Jaune said as he nearly pulled his hair out in fear, Pyrrha watched him pace around their room, flopping down next to Pyrrha, Jaune let out a groan of defeat and annoyance.

“We’ll be fine Jaune,” Pyrrha said as she held Jaune’s hand he turned to face her, she had the kindest warmest smile that he’d ever seen outside of someone like his mother, which considering their current situation; Jaune couldn’t help but see the parallels, “I know this isn’t something neither of us planned for.” Pyrrha said her voice cracking slightly she was probably the most nervous she’d ever been in her life; the only other times she’d ever been this nervous was when she entered her first competition back in Mistral, and when she first kissed Jaune and went off to go fight Cinder. Though this nervousness was different than those other two, those were more like sucking pits in her stomach, this was more like a full swarm of butterflies had infested her.

“But I think that if any two people could get through this, it’s us.” Pyrrha said her smile never leaving her face, “Plus we’re not alone, we have Ren, Nora and Ruby to help us.”  Pyrrha said as she cuddled up to Jaune putting her head on his lap as he sat up on the bed.

“Yeah…I guess you’re right, we can get through this, somehow.” Jaune said as he held Pyrrha a little closer.


	11. Of Mothers, Fathers and Daughters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it took me a while to write this but I'm thankful for finishing it when I did. Any way I hope you guys enjoy and what not.

Jaune let out a roar as he swung his sword at his opponent, the weapon embedding into the ground when she dodged with the grace of a trained fighter, well as much as she retained from her time as a fighter. While she had the finesse that shined through, she was still slightly off kilter from months of inactivity and lost training, nearly losing her balance a few times.

“Come on Jaune, you can do better than that!” Pyrrha said goading her boyfriend on to put more fight into him. Narrowing his eyes, Jaune charged at Pyrrha again as she jumped out of the way sending him to the ground, finishing their bout. The two were training along with the rest of Team RRNNJ and Oscar at the behest of their former headmaster, Ozpin who was inhabiting Oscar’s body. She was remembering the conversation rather well it was after they had seen Ozpin take over Oscar’s mind and talk through him, they had decided to use Qrow’s contacts to help them find the Spring Maiden.

“So, now we can move on to Step Two.” Ozpin said, as he took out his cane, this caught the five’s attention. Nora was the first to purse the question.

“What’s Step two? “Nora asked, Ozpin smiled and spoke up.

“Getting you five into shape.” Ozpin said, this confused the five who had been fighting and doing nothing but fighting for the past several months.

“But, we already know how to fight.” Ruby said trying to figure out what Ozpin was talking about. Ozpin then pointed to Ruby.

“Miss Rose, you can only fight so long as you have Crescent Rose, but still lack hand-to-hand experience.” Ozpin then pointed to Jaune and Pyrrha who were standing next to each other, “And you Mr. Arc, I’m glad to hear you’ve improved, but you have yet to unlock your semblance, and without that you will not pose much of a threat against Salem and her forces.” He said he then shifted to Pyrrha.

“And you Ms. Nikos, while you are an exceptional huntress, your recent condition has probably limited your training for some time, am I correct?” 

“Y-yes headmaster.” Pyrrha said as she looked at the child that was the cause of her condition.

“Than you will need to train to regain those lost months, and of course, though Oscar has given me temporary control, He’ll need to strengthen his body and Aura.” Ozpin said this confused the five as the though his experience came with the whole sharing two souls in one body thing, “While he’ll inherent my muscle memory in time, practice will greatly expedite the process.”  While this was all and good to the teens, they had one question unanswered.

“But if Qrow’s out looking for Huntsmen, who’s going to teach us.” Ruby asked, the five were then treated to a small spectacle as Oscar or rather Ozpin controlling Oscar propelled himself into the air using the momentum of his cane, landing on the armchair twirling his cane.

“Well, I believe I was the headmaster of Beacon Academy.” Ozpin said this display making the five have various looks on their face, Nora’s a look was one that seemed rather unimpressed, Jaune’s was surprise, Ruby’s was slight excitement, Ren’s was confusion and Pyrrha had a look of bemusement. And that’s how the two were sparring trying to train themselves to in Pyrrha’s case get back at her previous fighting form, and in Jaune’s case get to a good enough level to potently unlock his semblance.

“Good work Ms. Nikos, you’ll be back in your prime in no time.” Ozpin said speaking through Oscar, he turned to Jaune who was being helped up by Pyrrha, “And wile you did lose Mr. Arc, you are coming along rather nicely.” Releasing control of Oscar, it was time for him and Ruby to train, letting Pyrrha and Jaune talk to their teammates.

“I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.” Jaune said as he took ahold of his daughter, it was so weird to him, the word daughter seemed so foreign, it wasn’t a word that was bad to him just…strange he never thought he’d be a father in his teens but, he wouldn’t give it up for the world.

“Nah, she’s fine, you know she looks a lot like you Jaune.” Nora commented as she poked the little baby Arc who let out a giggle at her godmother.

“Heh, I guess she does,” Jaune said as he looked at his daughter, she had his face and the little tufts of blonde hair that covered her head, but there was one thing that made it know she was Pyrrha’s daughter, her green eyes; a gift from her mother.

“Oh! Ren wouldn’t it be cool if we had a kid too?” Nora asked Ren who was taken aback by how sudden this was and the two argued back and forth, letting Jaune and Pyrrha to talk amongst themselves. Eventually the days training was over, and the teens retired for the night, Putting their child to sleep Pyrrha and Jaune fell asleep in the same bed and that night, Pyrrha had another nightmare.

Lying before her was the bloodied and battered corpse of her boyfriend clutching their daughter as she wailed and cried for her mother and father. Pyrrha tried desperately to reach for her, but couldn’t move, looking down she saw a spear jutting out of her abdomen pinning her to the wall. Feverishly she tried to pull it from her or at least get herself free, she then saw the subject of her night mares for the past many months Cinder. Picking up her child Cinder sneered at Pyrrha and then laughed as the baby continued to cry.

“You know, I have to say, to see you like this is rather…funny,” Cinder said as she gently cupped Pyrrha’s face bringing her to look her in the eyes, “clawing away like the animal you are.” Cinder said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, she then noticed Pyrrha’s desperate attempt to get to her daughter. And the woman who to Pyrrha was evil incarnate had a wicked smile.

“Oh, poor, poor Pyrrha, so desperate to get toe the last thing I haven’t taken from you.” Cinder said as her eyes began to glow and before her eyes, Pyrrha watched the life leave her daughter’s body, Cinder disposing of the baby besides it’s father. Wailing in both pain and anger Pyrrha desperately thrashed trying to free herself to attack Cinder to no avail.

“Know this, I will take everything you love, and more!” Cinder said as she finished Pyrrha off waking her up, she was covered in a cold sweat and breathing like she just went through a battle. Looking to her side she saw her boyfriend still asleep, and most importantly still alive. Careful not to wake him up she got up and went over to look at her child, smiling she knew what she would need to do, and what she was fighting for, her family, the new one and old one she had.


	12. Reconciliation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long absence from the story, I've been busy with class and preparing for some other things, but I managed to knock this out so enjoy and sorry for the end, but I didn't feel like doing the rest of that episode, I'll do it in the next chapter.

It was odd to walk around a place you’d never been in before. At least that’s what Jaune thought as he and Pyrrha walked through the crowded city streets of Mistral. While Pyrrha was literally at home in the sprawling metropolis, Jaune: not so much, still it was an interesting experience to see the place where his girlfriend had grown up. The two were out shopping, mainly for groceries, but also spending some much-needed alone time together, with Nora, Ren and Ruby taking care of Arwen until they got back.

“Wow, Qrow was not kidding when he said this place was huge.” Jaune said as he looked around the marketplace that they were in. Pyrrha smiled at this, she was so used to the way that the markets in Mistral worked that she could navigate them like they were second nature to her, it came almost as easy as combat did. Jaune looked at his scroll and noticed they were missing a few things from their grocery list. Sighing he knew he’d have to go back and get them.

“Hey, Pyrrha, be right back, I forgot to get some things back at the produce stall, be back in a sec.” Jaune said as he left Pyrrha behind, to occupy her time Pyrrha perused a stand that had some rather beautiful gowns and dresses on display, hoping to find something that would fit her.

“P-Pyrrha!” Pyrrha heard a feminine voice that she recognized almost immediately, turning to her side she saw an older woman with bright red hair and green eyes like hers staring back at her, “Pyrrha! Oh my god it’s you!” the woman said as she scooped Pyrrha into a large hug.

“Oh god, I thought I’d never see you again.” The woman said as she hugged Pyrrha tighter, Pyrrha let out a groan as she tried to dislodge herself from the women.

“Mom, it’s good to see you too.” Pyrrha said as she tried her best to get her mother to let her go, though this seemed to have the opposite effect and caused the older woman to tighten her grip on Pyrrha.  Letting her daughter go, Pyrrha could see tears streaking across the older woman’s eyes.

“When-when I saw the Fall of Beacon on TV, and the CCT went down, and then nothing from you for almost a year.” Pyrrha’s mother said wiping the tears away from her eyes. Pyrrha sighed she was dreading this moment for a while now, she knew that the longer she was in Mistral the more likely she would be to run into family, and her mother was the last person she wanted to run into.

“Hey, Pyrrha I’m back.” Jaune said as he saw Pyrrha talking to an older woman who looked, well like Pyrrha. Jaune looked at the two before the connection was made. He then froze like a deer in headlights, he had never meet Pyrrha’s parents, or was it parent? Pyrrha had never clarified if her mom was a single mother or not.

“I take it this is Jaune, correct?” The woman said to Pyrrha she nodded, and the older woman smiled, “Hello, I’m Helen, I’m Pyrrha’s mother.” Helen said as she walked up to Jaune and looked the blonde up and down, he was still sweating bullets having not been this heavily scrutinized since class at Beacon Academy, the older women then let out a haughty laugh and went back up to Pyrrha.

“My, my, Pyrrha, you said he was handsome, but not this handsome.”  Helen said laughing again as Jaune and Pyrrha turned bright, bright red.

“Just kidding, well I’ll leave you two to whatever you were doing, It was good to see you again Pyrrha dear, when you have a chance come home so we can catch up on our own time.” Helen said walking off leaving Jaune and Pyrrha behind, the two were slightly bewildered and a little bit embarrassed, but they were at least glad that Helen seemed to approve of the two being gone for so long. Returning back to the house, they could see Ren and Nora were readying setting up the pots and wok for their dinner that night, Ruby was nowhere to be found.

“Oh, you guys are back, and you brought all the stuff!” Nora said as she rushed to grab the groceries with Ren shaking his head as she handed him the foodstuffs.

“Where’s Arwen?” Jaune asked wondering where his daughter was, his question was answered by Ruby walking in holding the baby which let out a sound of excitement upon seeing her parents.

“Here, Nora and Ren needed a quick break and so I uh took care of her, I guess.” Ruby said as she handed Arwen to Jaune who happily took the baby in his arms. Soon the preparations for dinner began, with most of the work being relegated amongst them, with Jaune and Pyrrha working to set the table, Nora doing the job of preparing the vegetables and Ren and Ruby being the primary cooks, they were having noodles that night a Xiao Long-Rose house family recipe.

“Alright, the first batch is nearly done.” Ren said as he stirred the pot with slight vigor, besides him Ruby was prepping the sliced vegetables in a wok, getting them to browned perfection.

“Awesome, now we just need Qrow and we’ll be all set.” Ruby said as she continued to brown and cook the food she was dealing with. Nora on the other hand was eating a few of the vegetables she was supposed to hand to Ruby, much to the two cooks annoyance.

“DO you really think Qrow’s gonna bring that many people, this is a lot of food.” Nora said popping a carrot into her mouth, and as if on cue, Qrow announced his return.

“I’m back!” Qrow shouted at the door as he entered.

“Be right there!” Ruby replied as she tried to quicken the cooking process. Ren took a look at the food and raised an eyebrow.

“You’re gonna overcook those.” Ren said matter-of-factly. Ruby puffed her cheeks out and took this as a slight against her.

“No I’m not, shut up!” Ruby said as she stirred the wok faster, all the while Qrow was still waiting for Ruby to come to the door.

“Hey, uh, Ruby?” Qrow said trying to get his niece’s attention. Just then the wok smoked indicating the food had burned. Not wanting to admit she just burned the food she turned to Ren

“Fine you take over. Coming!” Ruby said as she grabbed a tea tray and headed to the living room, “So we didn’t know how many people you were gonna bring so we just cooked all of it.” Looking at who was with Qrow she let out a gasp and dropped the tea tray, shattering the cups and kettle, before her were her best friend/girlfriend Weiss Schnee and her eldest sister Yang Xiao Long.

“Yang, I… I’m so sorry! I-I should’ve stayed, and I should’ve talked to you more! I’d-I just…” Ruby said her voice cracking as she tried to explain to her sister why she’d left, she was cut off when Yang had brought Ruby into a tight hug.  The two were soon pouring tears.

“I love you.” Yang said holding Ruby tighter.

“I love you too.” Ruby said responding to the hug, in the distance Jaune, Nora, Ren and Pyrrha were observing this scene smiles on their faces, “Weiss.” Ruby said inviting her girlfriend into the group hug, she responded with a smile as she grabbed Ruby and Yang happy to be reunited with most of her team after a year.

Sitting down after saying their hellos again, the RWY of team RWBY sat down with Team JNPR to play the worlds longest game of catch-up ever, over dinner with the group abuzz with conversation recounting their adventures while trying to get to Haven.

“How do you lose a map at a time like that?” Yang said as she laughed at Jaune who rubbed the back of his head.

“Yeah, I ask myself the same thing ever since.” Jaune replied as he looked at Pyrrha who was eating while feeding their daughter.

“Well you made up for it when you took on a giant Grimm head on.” Nora said giving Jaune props for his help in the fight against the Nuckelavee.

“Well I was um, kinda trying to protect my girlfriend and daughter so I guess it works out like that.” Jaune said sheepishly, trying to downplay his acts during the battle.

“Oh wow, that’s right you two are parents now, man that’s so weird.” Weiss said looking at the baby suckling from Pyrrha.

“Yeah, me and Jaune are the proud parents of our lovely daughter Arwen.” Pyrrha said as the child let out a small yawn and began to fall asleep in her arms, looking around she saw that everyone was staring at what was probably the cutest thing they’ve seen all day, and so the group continued to reminisce and catch each other up on the events that have transpired, and by the time dinner was done, they’d gone through the entire pot of noodles, though these good times weren’t to last, as Qrow would soon debrief Yang and Weiss on the situation at hand with the Maidens and everything else that he had told the other teens.


	13. Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was an intresting chapter to make, trying to fit things into how they might have changed in the canon, it was hard to say the least. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and what not.

It was some time after dinner and the group were in the living room Arwen having been put to bed, now was the time to get Yang and Weiss up to speed or in this case correlate what they heard from Raven. 

“So, the Maidens, magic, Salem, it’s all true?” Weiss asked still in slight awe at thee things she heard from Raven about the world at large, Qrow nodded

“Miss Xiao Long, is this more or less what your mother told you?” Ozpin asked yang didn’t seem to be inclined to answer, her arms folded, and a scowl stained across her face, Weiss taking the initiative and answered for Yang.

“For the most part.” Weiss answered, this seem to make Yang angrier, prompting her to speak up.

“You forgot something, you forgot to tell everyone what you did to Qrow and my mother.” Yang said making the others question just what she was talking about.

“What is she talking about?” Jaune asked trying to figure out just what the hell was going on. Qrow face palmed and sighed.

“Oh Great.” He said annoyed that Raven would reveal that of all things.

“Hm, that’s not a secret that I thought she would give up so easily, your mother must trust you a great deal.”  Ozpin said making Yang scowl at him even more.

“My ability to reincarnate, though a curse, isn’t with a few key benefits,” Ozpin stated as he looked at the group “Much, like the maidens, I too posses a certain, Magical, power.” Ozpin said as he rose from the seat he was in and walked up to Qrow.

“Using this power, I was able to gift the Branwen twins with the ability to  see more, to move freely and be unburdened by their natural bodies,” Ozpin said as he looked at the group, “ I well I gave them the ability to turn into birds, rather ridiculous sounding out loud, isn’t it?” Ozpin said chuckling to himself, this seemed to leave the outers in a air of disbelief

Uncle?” Ruby asked trying to wrap her head around the fact that her uncle was well...a bird now.

“You turned them into…birds.” Ren said trying to digest what he heard.

“Why birds?” Pyrrha asked wondering why he would do that of all things.

“Okay, now you’re just messing with us.” Nora said scratching her head. This seemed to be the norm for the group, just trying to wrap their head around the weird world that they had found themselves enwrapped in. 

“What else is new.” Jaune said angry, at the constant lies and tricks that Ozpin had apparently been playing upon them.

“He’s telling the true, we saw it, Yang’s mom…changed right in front of us.” Weiss said corroborating Ozpin’s tale, This seem to be enough to get on the rest of Yang’s bad side.

“Why would you do something like that!? I mean, what is wrong with you!?” Yang said angrily to Ozpin, Qrow having enough of this spoke up.

“Yang that’s enough! We made a choice, we wanted this.” Qrow said, this was also the straw that broke the camel's back for Jaune who opened his mouth.

“Bull crap!” Jaune yelled making the others look at him as he walked up to Qrow, “Every time we call Ozpin out, you always defend him, when you forced Pyrrha to become the Maiden, and now this enough!” Jaune yelled it took Pyrrha holding him to calm him down enough for him to sit down and prevent any more outbursts. Ozpin knew why he would be angry and tried his best to defuse the situation

“Sorry, this all must seem so…sudden to you all.” Ozpin said as he turned to the group and let out a sigh.

“So, did you do with with others, like General Ironwood or Professor Goodwitch?” Ruby asked trying to keep things on track. Ozpin shook is head.

“As helpful as that would be, my powers are finite, and dwindling unfortunately.” Ozpin said looking at Qrow again, “What I gave to Raven and Qrow was, all things considered a rather minuscule amount.”  Ozpin added as he walked into the middle of the group.

“You see, centuries ago, I scarified a great deal of magic to four young women, who I hoped would use my gift for good, they were the first Maidens.” Ozpin said connecting his powers to the Maidens and what they were hoping to accomplish, “Miss Xiao Long, it was never my intention to lie to any of you, there are just some matters that I prefer to…play close to the chest, as I believe that’s how you phrased it.” Ozpin said looking at Qrow who nodded.

“And while I’m sorry that I seemed forceful with Miss Nikos when I asked her to become the next Fall Maiden, it was not my intention, everyone has a choice, the Branwens chose to accept their powers, and the responsibilities that came with them, if anyone wished to leave, now is the time, there is no shame or disgrace in abstaining, only in retreat.” Ozpin said, the group took a moment to mull over what he had said.

“Very well then.”  Ozpin said but before he could get another word out Yang stood up.

“Yang?” Ruby asked wondering if her sister was going to have another outburst.

“If Ruby sticks around, then I will to, if there’s one thing I know about her, she always knows the right thing to do, but if we ‘re going to help, if we’re going to keep risking our lives no more lies, no more half-truths.” Yang said giving Ozpin this as the only stipulation for their continued help.

“Understood.” Ozpin said a smile on his face, this was enough to mull Jaune over for the time being.

“So, what now, I men what can we do?” Jaune asked looking at Ozpin hoping for something that they could do against Salem and her underlings.

“That is a difficult question, one that I believe is best answered tomorrow.” Ozpin said making Jaune sigh internally.

“What do you mean?” Jaune asked hoping to not get another set of non-answers from Ozpin.

“The road ahead is undoubtedly filed with hardships and peril; however, it’s been far too long since you have all been together,” Ozpin said as he placed a hand on Yang’s shoulder, “Please take tonight, enjoy this moment.” Ozpin said as he released control of Oscar allowing him to realize where his hand was and quickly remove his hand quickly. This was a few days ago. Now the team had rested and was going about with their new mission.

The moon shone brightly in the night sky as Team JNPR, and the RWY of Team RWBY alongside Qrow and Oscar walked through the courtyard of Haven Academy. In the time in-between Their last meeting and Yang and Weiss’s arrival, Leo had informed Qrow and the group that they might have some better luck finding more people to participate in their raid on Raven’s camp. Entering the main building of Haven Academy, they were greeted by Leonardo who was standing on the main terrace of the staircase.

“Why hello, thank you for coming.” Leo said as he noticed the increased number of people who were now part of their group. “There seems to be more of you than last time.” Leo said a tinge of nervousness leaking through his voice.

“Well you know what they say, the more the merrier, so what’s going on with the council.” Qrow asked giving Leo a shrug, Leo still nervous, looked at the group and could see they were armed to the teeth.

“Why…did you bring your weapons?” Leo asked acting stranger by the minute. This didn’t go unnoticed by Qrow.

“What? Leo, we’re huntsmen, you okay?” Qrow asked trying to figure out what on Remnant was wrong with Leonardo.

“Of course, of course, sorry, just haven’t had my evening coffee.” Leo said trying to make an excuse for his weird behavior.

“Look, it’s nice to see you, but we got work to do, are we getting support from the council or not?” Qrow asked, while the two were talking something caught the corner of Yang’s eye, a pitch black raven.

“Mom?” Yang said aloud, turning their attention to the bird transforming Harbinger to it’s shotgun form, Qrow shot at the bird, missing narrowly, flying away the bird transformed into Raven her mask adorning her face.

“Raven…” Ruby  said as she got  a good look at her sisters mother, she’d never seen Raven in person before, only from group photos from her time with Team STRQ,

“If you’re going to shoot me, shot me, that was insulting.” Raven said as she removed her helmet,

“what are you doing here?!” Qrow yelled at his sister for answers. She chuckled as she descended the stairs.

“I could ask you the same, you’ve been scheming, little brother, planning to attack your own sister.” Raven said standing before the group.

“Leo, what have you done!” Qrow asked the headmaster, before Leo could stammer out a excuse, Raven answered or him.

“Leo did what any sane person would in his position, “Raven said as she walked between the two, stopping before the statue in the middle of the stairway, “He looked at all the information he had in front of him, asses the situation, and made a choice, and it seems all you have too.” Raven said narrowing her eyes at the group.

“You have the Spring Maiden.” Qrow said gripping Harbinger tighter.

“I do.” Raven answered, her hand hovering above her sword.

“Then hand her over and let’s work together, we can beat Salem.” Qrow said trying to get through to his sister and hopefully end this without any fighting or bloodshed. Raven on the other hand did not seem to want to work in the spirit of peaceful cooperation.  

“All that time spend spying for Ozpin, and you still have no idea, what you’re dealing with, there is no beating Salem.” Raven said looking Qrow squarely in the eye.

“You’re wrong.” Ruby said catching Raven’s attention, “We’ve done things that most people would consider impossible, and I know the only reason we were able to do it because we didn’t do it alone, we had people to teach us, people to help us, work with us, at least I know we’ll have a better chance if we try together, please.” Ruby said pleading to Raven her hand extended out as an offer, Raven discarded this offer readily.

“You sound just like your mother.” Raven said scoffing at Ruby’s optimism, and to add extra salt to the freshly cut wound, she activated her semblance and a portal appeared and from it emerged a fireball that launched itself at Ruby hitting her squarely and sending her flying.

“Ruby” Yang yelled as she ran up to her sister and from the portal emerged one other person: Cinder Fall.

“Hello boys and girls.” Cinder said as the rest of her cohorts emerged from the portal, alongside another person who the group had no clue as to their identity.

“Cinder…” Ruby said glaring at the women who the group had been hunting for quite some time.

“C’mon guys, is that any way to greet your old friends?” Mercury said taunting the group, Qrow still trying to defuse the situation to his best abilities, spoke up again.

“Everybody, stay calm.” Then the doors opened and from it emerged a large man, this caught Oscar’s attention.

“Oh no.” Oscar said as the man continued his path towards the group.

“The White Fang is prepping demolition and securing the school grounds, no one is getting in, or getting out.” The man said as the others turned back to Raven and Cinder.

“This was all just a trap?” Weiss asked watching as one of their closet allies betrayed them to Salem and her group.

“It appears so.” Ren said as he gripped Stormflower tighter, Qrow on the other hand tried to figure out how long had his sister been apart of this.

“Raven, tell me…how long have you been with them?” Qrow asked his twin, hoping to get some idea as to why she would do this to her own flesh and blood, Cinder was the one to give him an answer, and more.

“Aww, don’t take it personally, little bird, your sister was a recent addition, the lion on the other hand… entrance into the Vytal Festival was a real treat, Leonardo’s been sending Salem all sorts of information for a very, very long time, isn’t that right, professor?” Cinder said ousting Leo as the trojan horse amongst their group, before Leo could give his side Qrow enraged spoke up again.

“It was you…you sit on the Mistral Council, you had information on every huntsman and huntress in the kingdom, and you gave it all to her?!” Qrow said his rage starting to boil over “I couldn’t find any of them, because you let her kill them!” Qrow said in pure rage at his old friend’s betrayal. The silence that Lionheart had was deafening.

“Now, now, don’t beat yourself up about it Lionheart, I’m sure Tyrian or Hazel would have found them on their own eventually.” Cinder said mocking the deceased in the very halls that venerated them.

“You heartless bitch!” Pyrrha cried out catching Cinders attention, for many months this specter of death, in the guise of a women plagued Pyrrha’s dreams, killing everything she ever loved and ever cared for, now she was standing before this specter and was not going to let anything go, she would show Cinder no quarter, “Is everything a sick joke to you, all this death and destitution, for what?!” Pyrrha said holding Mitéra agápi tighter as she looked her would be killer in the face, rage taking control of the normally calm Pyrrha, this was enough to make the rest of the group draw their weapons and prepare to take on the other group.

“Everybody, stay calm!” Qrow said still trying to de escalate things, to no avail, since Pyrrha ignored him and continued her tirade against Cinder.

“I’m gonna make you pay for all the lives you’ve taken!” Pyrrha said leveling Mitéra agápi, towards Cinders midsection, “Well, say something!” Pyrrha yelled her rage reaching a near fever pitch, Cinder smiled and looked her dead on.

“A nice speech, failed Maiden.” Cinder said this was enough to send Pyrrha into pure anger as she shot at Cinder who deflected the bullet, this was also enough to make Jaune charge to get a better shot at helping Pyrrha.

“Jaune!” Ruby yelled as she leapt into the air but before she could help her friends fight Cinder she was brought down by Emerald. Meanwhile Pyrrha and Jaune continued to attack Cinder with Pyrrha shooting and throwing her shield at her while Jaune tried to keep her off balance, with his flurry of sword attacks.

“You know, Leo told me you two have a little daughter, when I’m done with you, I might visit her.” Cinder said trying to goad Jaune and Pyrrha by mentioning Arwen, this enraged Jaune.

“Stop messing with me!” Jaune said as he gripped his sword tighter, meanwhile Pyrrha was preoccupied reloading her weapon, Cinder smiled as she looked Jaune head on.

“If that’s what you want.” Cinder said as she destroyed her sword, causing Jaune to shield his eyes, with a sword of flame in her hand, she lunged at Jaune him doing the same, this caught the attention of Ruby, who had flashback to Pyrrha’s near death, activating her silver eyes powers.

“Nooo!” Ruby yelled as her eyes glowed and surrounded the whole room in a silvery glow, this did not last long as she was knocked unconscious by Emerald.

With cinder disabled temporarily by this, Jaune took the initiative to try and land a killing blow on Cinder, missing her narrowly and falling over. This was followed by Pyrrha attacking her with Mitéra agápi’s spear form, Cinder dodged out of the way, and took Pyrrha by the neck, the teen struggling to get free of the Fall Maidens grip.

“You thought you two could beat me, now time for me to do what I should have done on Beacon tower.” Cinder said as a spear jutted from her hand hitting Pyrrha in the gut.

“Nooo!” Jaune yelled as Pyrrha held where the spear embedded deep into her, she was then thrown away by cinder landing in front of Jaune. All eyes in the room were drawn to this spectacle as Jaune looked on in horror at his girlfriend's body.


	14. An End and a New Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was probably the most work I've put into a chapter, since it's about 70 to 80 original stuff since I had to rework the entire last episode around what had happened last time. Anyway enjoy.

Pyrrha had known this darkness before, this void, this abyss. It was the same feeling she had when she first “died” at cinders hands. It was like floating in the vacuum of space, with no senses. She wondered if she died for real this time, if this was just what death was like an empty void, devoid of any and everything that remotely resembling light, or life or anything. Her mind drifted to a few things, to Jaune; the love of her life, to her beloved daughter, to her friends, her family. If this was how she died, she was content to say the least. Then she heard a voice, calling in the darkness.

“Pyrrha!” it was faint at first barley above a whisper, then it got louder, she could hear someone talking to another person. And the voices she recognized them, they sounded like Jaune and Ren. She then saw a dim light in the abyss. The light began to shine brighter and brighter until she was bathed in it. It wasn’t a blinding light it was rather calm, soon her eyes began to open she could see where she was, she was still in Haven Academy, and in the background the sounds of her fellow huntsmen and huntresses were still battling Cinder and her forces. She could see above her with his hands on her wound was Jaune.

“Jaune…” Pyrrha said groggily, as she got a good look around her, it looks like things were still going to hell in a handbasket so at least that was still the same. She could see a white glow emanating from Jaune, she could feel her Aura getting stronger and the wound in her chest closing.

“Pyrrha! Thank god your awake.” Jaune said as he pulled her into a hug.

“Jaune, what were you just doing?” Pyrrha asked as she wobblily got up from her position with the help of Jaune, she knew it was probably his semblance, but she wanted to be 100% certain.

“It’s I…I guess it’s my semblance,” Jaune said as he smiled at Pyrrha, she was happy that he finally had unlocked his semblance “So are you doing okay?” Jaune asked as he helped Pyrrha right herself, his semblance was still working on it’s effects on her.

“I’m good, I can still fight, but keep up the semblance work.” Pyrrha said as she used her semblance to pull her gun to her hand and reloaded it. She could see Nora and Ren fighting against Hazel, she narrowed her eyes. Firing off a shot she got the larger man’s attention. Growling Hazel launched himself at Pyrrha but was flipped and knocked down when Pyrrha threw her shield at him sending him to the ground.  Getting up Hazel roared again and stuck a new dust crystal in his arm and rushed at her again.

“I won’t let you touch her!” Jaune yelled as he blocked Hazel’s blow with his Aura amplified it sent Hazel flying through the wall and crashing into the courtyard. Outside they could hear the voice of a women, alongside searchlights and the sound of airships.

“What’s going on?” Pyrrha asked as she looked around, thinking for a moment, feeling up to snuff Pyrrha removed Jaune’s hands from her body and readied herself. A glow of white shone bright beside them and it was Weiss who summoned a queen lancer. The creature launched its stinger outside, soon being dragged back into the building was hazel, following behind them was a person they hadn’t seen in a long time; Blake Belladonna. This stopped most of Team RWBY as they locked eyes with their old teammate in nearly a year.

“Yang…” Blake said surprised to see her old teammate, this seemed to serve as good enough distraction for Ruby and Yang as it allowed Yang to slip away and get to the vault where Cinder and Raven had gone.

“Alright, Team, let’s go!” Jaune yelled as he rushed towards cinders compatriots JNPR would deal with Hazel and the rest of RWBY would deal with Mercury and Emerald. Jaune rushed towards Hazel dodging a blow by the goliath man but was caught off guard and thrown into a nearby wall. Pyrrha tried her best to attack but was punched into a column.

“This guy’s too strong.” Jaune said as he fell of the wall nearly coughing up some blood. He saw Nora rushing headlong towards hazel with a look of pure determination on her face.

“Doesn’t matter, we just have to find his limit!” Nora said as she charged her hammer and dashed in the air bringing it down with a megaton of force on Hazel’s head sending him crashing into the ground, sending shockwaves, and cracking the marble floor. But before she could revel in her victory Hazel grabbed her face and began shocking her with the electric dust crystals embedded in his arm: A huge mistake. Using her semblance Nora felt a surge of energy come through her and she loosened Hazels grip on her. With a roar Nora punched Hazel as hard as she could and sent him flying into Emerald and Mercury.

“Nora that was awesome!” Ruby yelled at her friend as the redhead huffed and puffed out of breath and bone tired after using a good chunk of her Aura to even remotely damage Hazel. Still this wasn’t enough, Hazels semblance of damage reduction kept him in fighting shape as he stood up, dusted himself off alongside Mercury.

“Just give up!” Ruby asked hoping to put an end to the fighting once and for all before anyone got seriously injured (again) or killed. This seemed to not be working as the villains readied for another bout with them.

“It’s not ever! Cinder will come back, she’ll have the Relic and she’ll end all of you!” Emerald yelled, when the vault’s elevator rose up again, instead of a victories Cinder Fall holding the Relic of Knowledge, it was Yang.

“Yang.” Ruby said happy to see her sister with the thing they came to protect, though this did not go over well with Emerald who began to break down. This was the most opportune time for the group of villains to leave.

“Emerald, get up, we need to go.” Mercury said trying to get his compatriot to leave, but she stayed on the ground, her breathing became frantic and labored, “Emerald!” Letting out a yell, Emerald did an activation of her semblance and in the middle of the room emerged a specter of some horrible thing. It had pale skin and let out a banshee’s wail and flew towards them covering them in darkness. When this darkness disappeared Emerald, Mercury and Hazel were gone.

“Wha-what was that?” Blake asked shaken a bit from the apparition that had emerged from Emeralds mind.

“An illusion, but an accurate one, that was…Salem.” Ozpin said answering Blakes question. In the distance Jaune helped Pyrrha and the two let out collective sighs of relief. Joining their team, they could see Team RWBY finally coming back together. The battle was won, and they came out of it unscathed all things considered; a victory that was hard fought and well deserved. Sitting down for what felt like ages Jaune let out a tired laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Pyrrha asked sitting besides him, he held her hand tightly and looked her deeply in the eyes.

“Nothing, just happy for once.” Jaune said as he gave her a quick peck on the mouth, the two brought their foreheads together and closed their eyes.

“Come on Mr. Arc, our daughter’s waiting for us back at the house.” Pyrrha said as she stood up, Jaune following suite. Their next target would be Atlas, but that would be some time from now, for now Jaune and Pyrrha were going to enjoy being together and being parents while Team RWBY caught back up again.

When he arrived back at the house, Jaune felt an urge he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. To write a letter to his mother and father. He knew Qrow would make sure it got to them. And so he wrote what he thought they might want to hear the most.

**_Dear Mom, Dad, and sisters,_**

**_It’s been a while since I’ve written you guys huh? Sorry for the silence but, things have been a bit hectic in the last couple of weeks. Don’t worry me and my friends are safe, we ran into a few problems here and there, but nothing we couldn’t handle. I have some news that I know will make dad angry but, I know mom and the girls will be happy, I have a daughter now, I know a year away, and I’m already a teen parent. But she’s a beautiful girl and I can’t wait for her to meet her aunts and grandparents. I miss you guys a lot and I hope to see you soon,_ **

**_Love, your son, and brother_ **

**_Jaune Arc._ **

Attached to the letter was a picture of Team JNPR and Team RWBY with Jaune and Pyrrha in the middle holding Arwen in their loving hands. With his letter away, Jaune looked at the two most important women in his life and smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter over, this story has come to an end it was fun writing it and I'm glad so many people liked it, I'll be finishing A Wolf in Schnee's Clothing soonish after this and will be making another RWBY fic afterwards.


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